BW: Black Dragon
by nightdragon0
Summary: A young soldier is torn between his past as a Predacon and present as a Maximal. Follow his tale as he challenges life and discovers his hidden abilities. But other mysteries await him, one that tells him that his name was once Sky Lynx ... (Completed)
1. Out of the Fire

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**Out of the Fire**

By nightdragon0

Nightfire looked up and swung his sword.

Just in time to deflect the blow and counter with a kick to his opponent's face. Deathwing stumbled backwards, barely managing to stay on his feet. Nightfire sprang to his feet, holding out his sword. Its blue energon blade seemed to pierce the darkness of the rainy night.

Nightfire barely felt the rain beating on his face as he watched Deathwing bring up his own sword in a combat stance.

"Been improving, haven't we?" Deathwing taunted.

"I was about to make that same comment!" Nightfire yelled, charging towards Deathwing, his sword held high.

The two clashed again. The impact sent Nightfire's weapon flying. With one motion, Nightfire leapt up, caught it and skillfully landed on his feet. Seeing Deathwing's back turned towards him, his weapon impaled in a nearby tree trunk, Nightfire moved in for the kill. Deathwing spun round. However, it wasn't his sword he was holding, but a gun.

Nightfire was caught off guard, taking three blasts, causing him to drop his sword as a wave of agony swept through his body. Deathwing freed his sword and snapped the gun back into place, forming the handle of his gun/sword weapon and pointing it at Nightfire.

"You loose." He sneered. And made one finial slash.

* * *

"Repair cycle complete." The computer announced.

The door of the CR chamber opened and Nightfire stepped out. Immediately, he noticed Optimus, Rhinox and Rattrap all staring angrily at him.

"Fine, start screaming at me."

"Nightfire! What did you think you were doing!" Optimus said angrily.

"None of your business."

Nightfire began to walk towards the door. Optimus immediately stepped in front of him.

"I specifically told you not to engage and you disobeyed a direct order!"

Nightfire reared up on his hind legs so he could look Optimus in the eye. For a moment, he saw the reflection of his dragon beast form on Optimus' shiny chestplate. Nightfire's body was the color of night. With his fiery-red eyes, razor-like claws and teeth, huge wingspan and long tail, he definitely looked like a ferocious creature. Nightfire transformed into his robot mode, which kept the dragon wings and tail. The beast limbs folded to reveal robotic limbs. The dragon's neck shortened and the head converted, his robot head looking very dragon-like.

(Note: If you've played FFVII or FFVIII, go take a good look at the summon/GF Bahamut. Imagine a more metallic looking version of him with a shorter neck. That's the robot mode.)

"I had an old score to settle."

"Yeah, ya did a fine job with it alright. Getting ya tail whipped kid!" Rattrap interrupted.

Nightfire swung his tail and knocked Rattrap across the room. "When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it!"

"Look, Nightfire," he turned to face Optimus, "since you're with us now, at least try to be a little more co-operative."

"Sometimes, you've just got to follow your instincts." With that, Nightfire turned and headed for the elevator. Along the way, he barged into Syndrea, a Maximal velociraptor, who was entering the room.

"Oh, sorry…" she began. But Nightfire didn't answer or even look in her direction.

Optimus sighed as he watched Nightfire leave. "I just don't know what to do with him."

* * *

_Maximals, they never understand, _thought Nightfire.

Back on Cybertron, he'd been an excellent Predacon assassin, spy and saboteur in spite of his young age. Many who underestimated his youth never lived to regret it.

Phantom, he was called then, the shadow none lived to speak of.

Although, he'd made quite a reputation for himself among his fellows, after countless numbers of never-ending missions, Nightfire eventually got tired of it all. He ran away, becoming an outcast, holding allegiance to neither side. Still, he was a master of disguise and was able to come up with many false identities for himself.

_I was simply the best. _He thought with a grin of pride.

Between all this, he came to hear of an exploration ship that would be departing soon. Seeing it as a chance to get off planet, away from the memories of his past, Nightfire eagerly signed on as a fifth crewmember, using his false identity.

Unfortunately, this exploration ship was called on to engage a fleeing Predacon vessel. All that eventually led to him ending up in a war that he never wanted to fight in.

It wasn't too bad at first, until the Maximals discovered his true identity. But even worse that an old enemy of his had been part of the Predacon crew.

Nightfire was sure that none of the Maximals really trusted him, especially because of his reputation. Optimus was probably regretting letting him join the Maximal ranks.

_As for Dinobot, he's got a clear code of honor. Me? I play dirty. _

Nightfire shook his dragon head and sighed.

* * *

Later, Nightfire was flying on patrol when he picked up several Predacon energy signatures from a jungle below. Naturally, he decided to investigate.

He carefully landed and crept quietly towards the location of the energy signatures. He heard a rustling sound nearby.

_So, I'm being followed, _he thought. Nightfire lead his follower trail him for a while then paused and suddenly pounced onto his opponent.

"Hey, wait!" the tan and black velociraptor began, "I'm…"

"A Maximal." Nightfire finished for her. "Syndrea, right? Optimus sent you to watch me."

"How did you know?"

"Optimus' tried it so many times before."

"Oh. And could you let me up now?"

Nightfire let the smaller velociraptor get up. She was not unlike Dinobot, just smaller and with a different shade of brown and with black stripes.

"So, I guess you must be looking for the Preds, huh?" She asked.

"Till you distracted me and….Shhh!" Nightfire held up a claw to his snout. Voices could be heard coming from the bottom of a hill to their left.

"Here it is!" came Scorponok's voice, "Just as Megatron said!"

"Megatron said?! I was the one who found it!" Terrorsaur's voice replied.

"Hey Syndrea," Nightfire whispered, "Stay here and don't move."

He ran off before Syndrea had a chance to protest. Sighing, she moved to a higher position to take a look. Scorponok and Terrorsaur were standing outside a small cave in robot mode arguing while Nightfire was quietly sneaking up behind them. Nightfire transformed and drew his rifle.

_As usual, he's gonna blast them from behind_, Syndrea thought. Just then, she noticed Tarantulas. He was sneaking up behind Nightfire. Syndrea decided she had to stop him. Transforming and drawing her gun, she ran to catch up with him.

She was almost within range when suddenly, SNAP! She stepped on a dry twig.

All the Predacons spun towards her direction.

* * *

Nightfire heard the loud snap.

_Stupid girl_, he thought. But he used the distraction to spring up and blast Tarantulas.

"The Maximals! Destroy them!" Scorponok yelled. Terrorsaur and him fired at Nightfire. The dragon made a fancy leap and landed in front of them.

"Do your worst!" he taunted, drawing his blue energon blade.

Both Predacons began firing wildly at him. He took a few hits, but otherwise deflected the rest of the shots back at the Predacons. As the pair ran for cover, Nightfire noticed the blue glow of energon coming from the cave and deflected one of Scorponok's missiles straight into it.

There was a huge explosion, which sent the remaining two Predacons flying off into the distance, screaming all the way.

Nightfire got up, brushing the dirt off his wings, and turned to Syndrea, still standing behind him.

"That was amazing!" she gasped.

"No thanks to you." He replied.

"Sorry, I was just trying to help."

"Next time you want to help me, do me a favor and DON'T!"

"But Tarantulas was…"

"Behind me, I knew that all along!"

"I…"

Nightfire suddenly shoved her to the floor as the spot she'd been standing on erupted in flames.

"Very impressive." A voice sneered. Nightfire turned to see Deathwing descending from the sky. This Predacon had a vulture for his beast mode. He was also the 'old enemy' of Nightfire's.

With his energon blade in hand, Nightfire lunged for his enemy. Deathwing drew his own weapon, a gunblade and the two were soon hacking away at each other.

A few feet away, Syndrea was climbing to her feet, still stunned from the blast. Deathwing saw this and decided on a new strategy and aimed his blow towards the female Maximal.

"Syndrea! Watch out!"

Nightfire did the only thing he was close enough to do. He jumped in front of her attempting to shove her out of harm's way. Instead, Deathwing's blade sliced into his back.

"Rrrroooaaaaarrr!"

Nightfire managed to turn around and fire off several shots at Deathwing. The Predacon was disarmed by the first and sent flying off by the next few.

"Once again, he saves my life." Syndrea muttered to herself, running towards the dragon, who was now panting and crouched over in pain.

"Are you alright?" she asked. Nightfire didn't answer. He first transformed into his beast mode. After which, he promptly collapsed.

* * *

"NIGHTFIRE!" Syndrea dashed over to him.

_The blow must have landed deeper than I thought! _

Syndrea decided that this was not a good place to stay. With some effort, she managed to drag the unconscious dragon deeper into the forest where they wouldn't be easy for the Predacons to detect them. She tried to radio for help, but got static on every channel. Syndrea looked around and suddenly realized that she didn't know how to get back to the base.

_Dammit! _

Syndrea was desperately wondering what to do when she heard Nightfire's voice. At least, she thought she did.

(The base. Just…to the south. )

She started and spun round. Nightfire was lying there, the same way she'd left him. And he was still unconscious.

_What was that? My imagination? Or maybe just my instincts? Either way, it's my best bet, right?_

"Beast mode." She said, transforming into her velociraptor form. It wasn't easy, but finally she managed to haul Nightfire's limp form onto her shoulders and began running.

* * *

"I still can't contact either of them," Rhinox told Optimus, "too much interference."

"I'm going to look for them," Optimus activated his jets and opened the roof hatch, "keep me informed if you pick up anything."

"Will do."

Optimus took off, disappearing into the sky. Rattrap looked up from his card game.

"Told ya that kid was nothing but trouble."

"Shut up, Rattrap."

* * *

Syndrea ran till she was completely out of breath. Finally, she had to stop, putting Nightfire's limp form down beside a river.

_This river! I'm sure it's the one leading to the base. Now if I just…_

"Predacon unit detected." Her computer warned.

"Oh carp." She could faintly hear the sound of jets. Flyers, big trouble.

Turning Nightfire's body round, she pulled out an emergency distress beacon, a small circular object that would send a signal to any Maximal unit nearby. Syndrea activated the small device and gave a cry of delight when beeped a positive signal.

That meant that their friends had picked up the signal.

The roaring of jets was getting louder now. The Predacon unit was getting closer.

Syndrea transformed and pulled out Nightfire's rifle. The weapon felt awkward in her trembling hands, but she knew it packed a stronger punch that her own gun.

As Syndrea hid the dragon under some bushes, she got a very good look at his beast form. It was…majestic. That was the only word she could think of.

Imaging this creature, hunting, stalking. A sight that would simply make you stare in awe and fascination…

Syndrea shook the thoughts out of her head. Now's not the time to be daydreaming.

Gripping the rifle firmly, she ran off to face the enemy.

* * *

Nightfire awoke at the sound of footsteps. In spite of his blurred vision, he could make out Syndrea's form, holding a weapon, running off into the distance.

_Syndrea!_ He tried to call, but nothing came out. Then the pain hit him. Every system in his body blazed with agony. He wanted to scream, but no sound left his snout.

He practically forgot it all when he heard the sounds of gunfire.

_Syndrea! By the pit! Is she risking her life…for me?_

Nightfire tired to struggle to his feet, but to no avail and collapsed back onto the floor. More gunshots could be heard.

_If something happens to her, Optimus will never forgive me! Gotta help…_

Nightfire closed his eyes.

_There is something I can do… _

* * *

Syndrea was not doing well.

Deathwing had been the Predacon unit she'd picked up and he was simply too fast for her to hit.

"Hahahha! Now you're finished, Maximal!" the Predacon laughed, firing a few more shots.

Syndrea barely dodged the shots. She scrambled behind a tree, panting wildly.

(Let me help. ) She heard a mysterious voice coming form nowhere.

"Who are you?" she whispered, glancing around.

(Doesn't matter. Calm yourself. Open your mind to me. )

Syndrea did that, feeling strangely at peace with this mysterious presence. Before she knew what she was doing, she sprung out of her hiding place and fired off several shots.

The carefully timed shots didn't hid Deathwing, but instead a tree as he was hovering next to it. The tree fell, knocking the stunned Predacon to the ground. She fired off another burst of shots.

These found their mark, hitting the Predacon squarely in the chest.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The Predacon was hit again, but this time by several shots from Optimus Primal. Deathwing decided it was time to retreat.

"Curse you Optimus!" he yelled as the transformed and flew away.

"Thanks Optimus," Syndrea gasped, "but Nightfire's…"

"The others are taking care of him." Optimus told her, "thanks to you, he'll be alright. But I didn't know you could shoot like that."

"The truth is, neither did I…" Syndrea muttered, glancing at the rifle in her hands as if it were cursed.

* * *

**Later…**

Nightfire received another stern lecture from Optimus. After which, Nightfire promised he'd follow orders from now on.

After what seemed like hours, he was finally dismissed from Optimus' quarters with a stern warning. As he made his was to the exit, he ran into Syndrea in the control room. Both of these two were in beast mode. Rhinox was there too, working at his computers as usual.

"Hey big lizard," Syndrea said, "looking good."

"Yeah." He tried to walk past her. Syndrea pulled him back by his tail.

"Is that all you can say? No thanks or anything?"

"Oh I'm sorry," said Nightfire with a sarcastic tone in his voice, "were you expecting an 'Oh thank you so much for saving my life, I'm deeply in your debt'? Not from me."

"Oh you are so terrible!"

"Me? You were the one who almost got me killed."

"What??"

"You should have stayed there and kept quiet when I told you to."

"At least I was trying to help!"

Rhinox cut in, pushing the two apart and stand between them.

"You know," he smiled, "I've heard that if two bots argue a lot, it means that they actually care about each other very much."

"ME? Care about **her**??"

"ME? Care about **him**!!"

"Get real."

"Rhinox, you really have your circuits crossed."

Chuckling, Rhinox went back to his workstation.

"But," Syndrea pointed out, "you still owe me one for saving you."

"Fine," Nightfire had already thought of a way to get himself out of this mess, "I'll make you this offer."

Cheetor and Rattrap were coming into the room just as Nightfire said: "I'll take you out on a date, just once, take it or leave it."

Cheetor and Rattrap nearly fainted. Nightfire saw Syndrea thinking very hard.

_Good, _he thought, _she's bound to say 'no' and I'll be out of this mess._

"Alright then," Syndrea smiled, "I accept."

"What! Ow!" Nightfire jumped up in surprise, extending his neck to its full length and hitting his head on a wall. "You were supposed to say 'NO'!"

"Way to go dragonman!" Cheetor and Rattrap were clapping and whistling, "someone's got himself a hot date tonight!"

Nightfire was shaking his head, glaring angrily at Syndrea.

"I hate you sometimes." He muttered, "well I guess I have to keep this promise. I'll going to check out a few places, but not anywhere near Pred territory."

"Just meet me here tonight." Syndrea smiled.

Nightfire sighed. "Yeah…"

The dragon spread his wings and flew out through the open roof hatch.

Unseen to everyone else in the room, Rhinox smiled to himself.

"These two have a bright future ahead."


	2. Buried Secrets

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**Buried Secrets**

By nightdragon0

Nightfire took a deep breath, then stepped onto the elevator.

As it ascended into the control room, he found Syndrea waiting for him.

"Right on time." The female velociraptor smiled. Nightfire nodded.

"I'm ready."

Inside, Nightfire was still cursing himself. _Man, how'd I let her con me into doing this?_

"So," Syndrea continued, "where are you taking me?"

Nightfire reared up on the hind legs of his dragon beast form, extended his neck and spread his wings to their full length, almost halfway across the room.

"It's my secret--ow!" With his long neck extended to its full length, he accidentally hit his head into a lower section of the ceiling.

"This room certainly wasn't made for dragons!" Syndrea laughed.

"Anyway," Nightfire continued, feeling slightly embarrassed, "we'll need to take a short flight."

The dragon pushed a button to open the roof hatch. "But I can't…" Syndrea began.

Nightfire dropped to all fours and lowered one of his wings like a boarding platform.

"Ok…Whhooaa!" Syndrea shakily got onto Nightfire's back and gripped his neck as well as she could with her velociraptor claws. Nightfire started flapping his wings and took off. Hovering in the air above the base, Nightfire turned his head to Syndrea.

"You all right?" he asked.

"Whhoa! Yeah, I'm fine."

"Just hold on tight and try not to strangle me or jab me with those claws of yours, Ok?"

"Got it."

"By the way," Nightfire asked, "I heard you've never been flying before."

"Well, no," replied Syndrea, rather taken aback, "not like this, just in space ships and that sort of thing."

"Good," Nightfire had a youthful grin in his fiery red eyes, "prepare for the ride of your life!"

"Wait a minute!" Syndrea protested, "Don't tell me you're gonna--yyyaarrgghhhh!"

Nightfire took off at full speed.

* * *

Everything was flying past too quickly for Syndrea to comprehend.

She knew that the Maximals hadn't been on the planet for very long, but Nightfire flew so…calmly, so naturally, as he'd lived here all his life.

The black color of his scales blended in so perfectly with the night that Syndrea felt she was riding a piece of the sky itself.

He flew high overhead the landscape, over places she wasn't too familiar with yet. When he came to a huge lake, he descended, dragging his hind legs in the water and sending out waves in all directions.

Beyond that was a huge rift valley formed between two mountains. Syndrea had to hold on even tighter was he spun, swerved and twisted around the rock formations. Nightfire suddenly changed direction and charged into an opening, naturally concealed by the trees and plants.

Syndrea closed her eyes as leaves went flying everywhere. When she opened them, she was treated to a magnificent sight.

Tall trees and lush greenery now surrounded them. Night flowers could be seen blooming in the moonlight. A river with a waterfall came from the mountains above and ran through the center of the clearing. Four wooden torches had been set up on one side of the river.

Nightfire shot out a fireball from his mouth and lit up one of them.

Syndrea gasped.

"Wouldn't be able to call myself a dragon if I couldn't do that." He gave a cocky grin.

He circled back and lit two more, one by firing upside down and one by firing over his shoulder. He made another turn for the grand finale. Unfortunately, one of his wings got caught in a tree branch.

"Yyyaarrghhh!"

His shot made a loud splash in the river. The pair made an equally crash as they landed in a heap.

"Ow!" Nightfire muttered, "damm, that was pathetic."

He lit the last torch with a fiery breath.

"You sure can come up with some impressive ways to show off." Syndrea remarked.

"Not like I do it often," Nightfire muttered to himself, then asked, "anyway, do you like this place?"

"It's so…beautiful." Syndrea was admiring the surroundings.

"I was planning to show Tigatron this place since he's so into nature." Nightfire walked and sat down beside the river.

"How'd you find out about this place?" she asked as she joined him.

"Well," Nightfire thought for a while, "I'm not really sure. I was just flying around here and some sorta…feeling seemed to lead me here."

"Feeling?" Syndrea asked.

(Something like this. )

Syndrea jumped. She was sure she'd heard his voice in her mind. Now she realized, the mysterious voice she'd heard before, it was definitely him.

"Was that you?" she gasped.

"Can you keep a secret?" he asked.

Syndrea nodded.

(It was me that helped you back then. )

"I don't believe it…" Syndrea was still completely stunned.

"Watch this as well." Nightfire pointed to a small rock at his feet. He closed his eyes for a second and made a motion with his claw. The rock flew and landed with a 'plop' in the river.

"By the Matrix! You're a seer!"

At the remark, Nightfire turned away and glared down into the water.

"Sorry," Syndrea said, "I didn't mean anything."

"It's not that," Nightfire answered, with his back still turned, "just that no one's ever jumped straight to that conclusion before."

"You mean it's really true?" Syndrea asked, "you're one of those bots with psychic powers?"

(Does it look like I'm lying? ) He telepathically said to her.

"It's just so…so hard to believe."

"Cause you're a scientist, right?"

"Not only that," she replied, "There were legends about these bots that possessed tremendous mental powers. Most of these just didn't make sense. I thought they were just stories."

"Our talents could never be explained by science alone," Nightfire gazed up at the stars. "They say that seers come about once a generation, whether Maximal or Predacon. I myself couldn't believe it at first, but once I realized it, I had to accept it was the truth. That's what made me a more efficient….never mind."

Syndrea knew what. An extremely efficient Predacon assassin. One with a sixth sense that could warn him of every danger. She decided not to ask him about it now, but made a mental note of it.

"This is the first time you've told this to anyone, I assume."

"Yes."

"Why me?"

"Guess I feel that I can trust you." He paused for a moment, then added in, "Besides, it usually helps to have an ally for backup."

"So does this mean you'll stop acting so cold to everyone and disobeying every order."

"Hey! Don't push me too far. Those things are what gives me excitement in life."

"Being mean to everyone?"

"Yep. But blasting people apart is so much more fun."

"You are such a sadist."

"Of course." He held his chest up proudly. Syndrea decided to change the subject.

"Anyway, can you do other things like read minds or predict the future." She asked.

"Well, I've never really tried reading minds. And I can't really control my visions."

"Visions? Then can you really 'see' things before they happen?"  
"Only sometimes. These visions just come and go, usually in my dreams. They may be of the future, or sometimes the past. I can never really tell. But actually, I try not to use my psychic powers if it can be avoided."

"Why?"

"Because I've…" Nightfire suddenly lost his cocky tone. "I've seen the destruction they can cause if I let them get out of control." Nightfire clenched his fist. _Jeez, what's happening? What's this I'm feeling? Guilt? Sadness? Or something in between? _

"No matter what you've done in the past," Syndrea put a claw on his shoulder, "you're a Maximal now. And you're my friend. Let me help you."

The dragon jerked his head up and stared as if he'd never heard that phrase in his entire life. Syndrea gave him a hug. A rather bizarre sight, but not like there was anyone there to see them.

Syndrea didn't expect him to respond. She was surprised when she felt him put his arm around her.

_Then it's really possible to soften his heart of stone…_

* * *

_Boring, boring, boring. Oh man!_

Rattrap sat in a chair in the control room, glaring dreamily at the monitors.

_Jeez, how come I'm always the one who ends up on monitor duty. Slag, nothing ever…_

One of the computers started beeping.

"Huh?" Rattrap sprang up and pushed a few keys. "Yo! Boss monkey, you'd better get over here quick!"

"You found something?" Optimus asked, coming over.

"Yeah, incoming stasis pod. Right…here!" he pointed to a spot on the monitor.

"Do we have any units nearby?"

"Closest unit: Nightfire." The computer replied.

"Get him to go after it," Optimus instructed, "I meet up with him there."

Rattrap activated the comlink. "Yo kid! Ya there?"

"Morning vermin," came the reply, "how we doin' today?"

"Just one thing: stasis pod, grid omega!" Rattrap yelled, rather annoyed.

"Nightfire," Optimus leaned over, "think you could make it back here with the pod?"

"Don't need to," Nightfire replied, "I can get your new pal online for ya!"

"You're sure you know how?"

"Of course," Nightfire bragged, "they didn't call me an evil genius for nothing."

There was a moment of silence.

"Hey, I was just kidding!"

"About which part?" Rattrap asked, "the evil part or the genius part."

"Just SHUT YOUR TRAP, RAT! And I'll get the pod. Over and out!" Nightfire broke contact.

"Well, at least he's better behaved now." Optimus sighed, "but I'd better go help him."

* * *

Nightfire had spotted the pod.

On the edge of a cliff, out in the open.

_Perfect. It just has to be right out there._

"Nightfire, maximize." He transformed a few feet away, under the cover of several trees. With his rifle in hand, he cautiously hurried over to the pod. He opened the panel to start the DNA replication sequence.

Suddenly, he spun round, rifle in hand, and fired…sending Scorponok flying off the cliff. His blue energon sword was in his hand the next instant deflecting several shots.

"Oh, you're good, kid." Terrorsaur sneered, hovering into view.

"Hand over the pods now and perhaps we'll spare your life." Tarantulas stepped into view.

Nightfire realized he was cornered, his back to the stasis pod. Move any further back and he'd knock the pod over the cliff. Still, he said nothing, jumping into a combat stance, his face a grim look of determination.

_Keep Tarantulas away from it. He's the greater threat. _

Tarantulas fired. Nightfire deflected the shot, holding his ground. Terrorsaur took the opportunity dive bomb the Maximal. Nightfire lost his rifle as the two clashed.

As they struggled, Terrorsaur managed to restrain the dragon in a chokehold. Tarantulas saw his opportunity and fired a cyber-venom dart. Nightfire broke Terrorsaur's grasp at the last moment and ducked, the dart hitting Terrorsaur instead.

Nightfire shoved aside Terrorsaur's body, still convulsing with pain, and slashed at both sets of Tarantulas' spider-leg machine guns.

The spider was stunned, but not for long however, and responded by punching Nightfire in the face. Tarantulas was reaching for his gun, but Nightfire threw his sword at the Predacon, knocking the weapon away.

Nightfire turned and sprinted for the pod, only to have his tail grabbed by the Predacon and yanked violently to the floor. His lower jaw hit the hard ground with a snap.

Now it was the Predacon's turn to go for the pod. Nightfire tackled him, both ending up in a heap, punching and kicking as they rolled about. They happened to be close to Nightfire's dropped rifle, which Tarantulas grabbed and tried to fire. Nightfire whipped the Predacon's hand with his tail.

The shot hit the stasis pod instead, blowing it to pieces.

"NO!" both of them shouted simultaneously.

Tarantulas recovered first and jabbed Nightfire in the shoulder with a small dagger. After which he grabbed Terrorsaur's limp form and ran off, shouting "Another time, Maximal!"

Nightfire ripped the dagger out, feeling the pain piercing his left shoulder. He heard jets and turned around, to find Optimus landing behind him.

"Are you alright?" the Maximal commander asked.

"Fine," Nightfire lied, "which is more than I can say for your friend there." He jerked a thumb towards the destroyed stasis pod.

Optimus said nothing. Without looking back, Nightfire left him standing there as he returned to his dragon form and flew off.

_Why do I feel so bad about it? _He asked himself, _what's another dead body to you? It's part of war. Casualties. Why bother? Why are you so worried, Predacon? What did you ever have to lose? _

Then he realized. _Syndrea_…

* * *

"Common! Over here!" Cheetor called. Rattrap and Dinobot ran to catch up.

Right after Optimus had left, Rattrap picked up another signal. Except this one came out of nowhere, from an unknown source. Cheetor, naturally, appointed himself to 'check it out'. Without orders of course. After which Rhinox had literally shoved Rattrap and Dinobot out after him.

Dinobot noticed Syndrea running over to meet them as well.

"Well if it isn't lady dragon," Rattrap mocked.

Syndrea growled and snapped at Rattrap, showing off the rows of her velociraptor teeth.

"Shut up, vermin." She growled.

"Hey, that's supposed to be ol' chopper face's line!"

Dinobot was about to respond when Cheetor called again.

"Check this out guys!"

The entire group rushed over.

"Well?" Dinobot asked.

"Look's like it's coming from, er, right below us." Cheetor said, looking at the device in his hand.

"Allow me." Said Rattrap. He pulled out one of his bombs. "Now just set the timer and….SCRAM!"

The group dashed behind the cover of some rocks. Syndrea was looking around when she noticed that huge, rock walls surrounded them on three sides. A box canyon.

"Hey, what if…" she never got to finish the sentence.

BOOM! Went the detonator.

Almost immediately, the ground began to shake. Rocks were falling off the walls.

_Great, it's not very stable rock!_

"Eh, oops!" Rattrap laughed nervously.

"Avalanche!" Dinobot shouted. "Let's get out of here!"

Syndrea turned to run. But a huge crack appeared right under her. She went tumbling in, followed by the rest of the Maximals.

* * *

Nightfire shoved another rock away.

_I can't believe myself. My claws, these perfect weapons, reduced to digging in the dirt? _

He'd simply been flying around after his encounter earlier that day when he heard a voice calling out to him. Or at least, thought he heard it. Something had drawn him like a magnet down to this spot.

His instincts had never led him astray, so he'd decided to find out what had been 'calling' him.

Digging with his claws wasn't easy, not to mention his shoulder still ached from his wound from earlier.

_Sometimes, I just hate the way my spark was created, with these extra senses and psychic powers. _He was silently complaining. _Man, I won't be surprised if I lose my mind someday…huh?_

His search had been partially rewarded. Beneath the dirt, one of his claws had hit something.

Something metallic.

* * *

Groaning, Cheetor opened his eyes.

He found himself in almost complete darkness. Immediately, he sprang to his feet.

_The avalanche! _He remembered, _man! I'm buried alive!_

"Rattrap!" he called, "Dinobot! Syndrea! Help!"

"Cheetor, we'd gladly help you," came Syndrea's voice, "if you weren't STANDING ON TOP OF US!"

"Huh? Oh! Sorry!" he moved so the rest could stand up. There was barely enough space in the small hole for the four of them.

"Rather amusing situation you're gotten us into." Dinobot muttered, referring to Rattrap.

"But what now?" Cheetor asked, "could we just blast our way out?"

"Won't be much help," Syndrea shone a light upwards, "unless we want those on our heads." She indicated the huge boulders making up the 'ceiling'.

"Hey, over here!" Rattrap seemed to be pulling something. Amazing, a trap door came open. He quickly slid down it.

"You'll want to get down here!" he called.

It was a tight squeeze, especially for Dinobot, but they made it through. The group found themselves standing in a corridor. A metallic corridor that definitely belonged to a space ship of some kind.

"Ultra gear…" Cheetor muttered.

"What is this place?" Syndrea wondered.

"Some crash landed ship, just like ours." Dinobot said, "who knows how long it's been buried under here."

"Yeah," Rattrap added in, "and who knows what ghosts might be wandering round here as well."

"SHUT UP RATTRAP!" everyone else shouted.

"Hey! I'm just saying we should watch our backs, alright?" he protested.

* * *

Nightfire's footsteps echoed throughout the dark hallway.

The metal piece he'd found had actually been the roof of this hallway he was now standing in. Without a second thought, he'd ripped it open and climbed down.

_This definitely looks like the inside of some kinda vessel. _

Following his sixth sense, he navigated the winding corridors, his way illuminated by the blue glow of his sword. Eventually, he came to a large door at the end of the corridor.

_This is where it's been leading me?_

The door was not locked and slightly ajar.

Nightfire head his sword up to his snout, took a deep breath, then stepped through.

* * *

The group turned round a corner, the area illuminated by their flashlights. After some bickering between Rattrap and Dinobot over who was in charge, they'd finally reached a decision that they should first find the control room of the ship. Then, hopefully, someone would come up with a plan.

"Whose ship do you think this is?" Cheetor asked.

"Judging from its structure, it's definitely a Maximal ship." Syndrea answered, "And probably a science vessel too."

"You seem pretty sure about it."

"I worked on many of these in the past. And if I'm right, this should be the control room." She stopped in front of a pair of double doors. She shoved at them, but they wouldn't budge.

"Hold this, vermin." Dinobot tossed his flashlight to Rattrap.

He charged and bashed at the doors. Once. Twice. On the third try, he barged through.

"Nothing at all," He glared around, "this was a waste of time."

"Hey, look!" Syndrea ran forward to one of the monitors.

It was giving a barely audible beep. On closer inspection, she saw a single, faint word on the monitor:

_Startup?_

"I ain't believing it." Rattrap said. He sat down in the chair and began working on the computer.

"What are you doing?" Cheetor asked.

"Wait…now there!" all the lights in the room suddenly came on.

"Wooahh!"

"This place actually has power!" Rattrap said.

"The crew of this ship must have found some power source upon landing here." Syndrea explained, "Some kind of geothermal source would provide them with a very long time's supply."

"However," Dinobot said, "this vessel has obviously been abandoned for thousands if not millions of years."

"True, and it seems that the ship's systems were on minimum power standby all that time."

"Hey, I found something!" Rattrap called.

On the screen he'd printed out the ship's layout and its name: Hyperion--2.592.5489.5X2

"Hmmm…" Dinobot muttered, "I'm positive I've heard that name somewhere before."

"Anyway, that's all I can get." Rattrap continued, "most of the other stuffs' encrypted."

"Can't we call the base or something?" Syndrea asked.

Rattrap pushed a few more keys.

"Well, it says there were plenty of spare power cells stored here. If we could hook up one of em' here, I could probably scan the entire ship and find an opening in it, or call home base for help if that's necessary."

"Wait! Where says?"

"The captain's log."

"Could you bring up the last entry?"

"Sure."

Syndrea browsed through it. There was a date given, followed by a few comments by the captain, a brief check of the ship's status. Nothing much.

"Anyway, forget about it and let's get down to business." Rattrap called up a map on the screen and pointed to four spaces on the map. "These are probably the storage rooms. I guess we can start our search."

"We'll have to split up to cover more ground." Dinobot said.

"Yeah and by the way, this ship has three levels." Rattrap continued looking at the map. "This is level 2. There's two of the rooms here, one above us and one below."

"Ok, let's go!" The group left the room.

"By the way, the place is mostly energon shielded." Rattrap added in, "but our comms aren't working for some reason."

"Well, that's an upside." Syndrea said softly. "But it's like some sort of disruption." She noted, tapping her com-link.

"Er, guys are you sure it's alright to split up like this?" Cheetor nervously asked.

"What's wrong kiddo, ya scared of ghosts?"

"Huh, me? No way!" Cheetor quickly shot back.

"Now that's that's settled, can we get movin' now?"

"Hey," Syndrea cut in, "no matter what, let's meet back here in 3 mega-cycles, ok?"

Without another word, everyone took off in his or her own direction.

* * *

Nightfire stared in disbelief at what he saw.

The room was almost completely empty, bar the single display stand in the center. On it was something he'd only heard stories of.

"The Phoenix Blade…"

It was an old legend about this magnificent sword used in the Great Wars. It had said that the weapon had been lost when the research vessel carrying it had mysteriously disappeared. Now, Nightfire was staring right at it.

Nightfire stepped forward to take a closer look. Suddenly, a dart shot out of the wall.

In the blink of an eye, Nightfire snatched it out of the air before it could hit him. Laser beams appeared as well and formed a deadly maze.

_So, they're not gonna make this easy._

Nightfire carefully navigated the laser maze, twisting his every limb in every possible direction.

He finally made it through. With his tail, he shattered the glass casing. He was reaching for the sword when he heard a click. Acting on instinct, he jumped round and torched an auto-gun that was about to fire.

_Gotta_ _love this fiery breath._

Nightfire triumphantly grabbed his prize and pulled it out. Instantly, all the traps deactivated.

"Another defense system that's failed to keep me out."

Before he could closely inspect the weapon, it began to glow in a soft orange light. His own sword, still in his other claw, began glowing brightly as well.

_What if…_

He touched the two swords together. In front of his eyes, the two weapons glowed brighter and began to change shape, forming into a single, awesome-looking sword.

Its blade glowed with a light green color. The handle had formed into the shape of a Phoenix's head, with a blue crystal in the center. Nightfire tested it, swinging it back and forth.

"I think I'll keep you." He said, admiring his new weapon. Then he looked up and realized that he didn't remember the way out.

"Guess nothing comes free…"

* * *

Dinobot walked silently along the corridor and descended the stairs to the lower level.

After consulting his map, he continued moving. At one point, as he turned around, something dashed past him.

Instantly, he sprang into warrior mode. Leaping into a battle stance and pulling out both of his weapons.

"Show yourself!"

However, nothing responded.

"Cowards! Come out and fight!" Dinobot shone his light.

Nothing. Dinobot was talking to a wall.

* * *

Elsewhere, Rattrap pulled open the metal grills and climbed up the ventilation shaft. He'd figured this was the quickest way to his destination.

Click. Click. Click.

Rattrap became aware that something was following him.

_No room to fight in this cramped tunnel. Get out of here!_

Crawling as fast as his legs would allow it, he kicked open the first metal covering he came to and jumped out.

"Hah!" He whipped out his gun and fired several shots back into the ventilation shaft.

He waited.

Nothing. No sounds of anything that was moving, other than himself.

"Nah, just my imagination." He muttered, glad no one else was around to have seen him panic.

* * *

In another part of the ship, Nightfire entered a laboratory. At least, that was what it looked like to him.

The room filled with tables, lad instruments and three huge glass cases at the far end. He noticed a computer console next to one of the glass cases was on.

_This place has power?! _He wondered.

He walked over to take a closer look. On the console was a bunch of scientific formulas he didn't understand. A beep from a computer behind him startled him. Nightfire's tail went up and accidentally pushed one of the buttons.

The floor beneath him sprang up, flinging him into the open glass case. Its opening sealed before he knew what was going on.

Realizing he was trapped inside, he reached for his sword. His claw only grasped the empty space where he strapped it to the back of his beast mode. Looking outside, he saw it on the floor.

"Damm!"

Nightfire bashed on the wall with his head, but to no avail. The glass was stronger than it looked. Clawing it didn't help. He tried blowing a fireball, but it only rebounded and hit him in the face.

"Nightfire, Maximize!" he called out his transformation command. Nothing happened. Some anti-transformation field prevented it.

Nightfire realized it wasn't a glass case, but rather a transparent cage for very large lab animals.

And right now, he was the lab rat. Trapped in a cage. Furiously, he pounded on the glass again.

"F#&#!"

* * *

Cheetor was trying to act calm, but he still felt his knees knocking.

_I am not afraid. There are no ghosts here._

Standing outside the door, he checked his gun for about the hundredth time and shone his light in.

"Yes!" Spread out on a table were the power cells he'd been looking for. Excitedly, he reached out and grabbed one, stuffing it into his sub-space compartment.

Cheetor was about to leave when something caught his eye. He walked over to a really cool-looking shotgun, which was hung on a wall.

"Hey, maybe Rattrap'll like it." Cheetor never noticed the two mounting hooks of the shotgun click upward, having been released from the weight of the gun.

He was so busy examining it that he didn't notice a door silently open behind him.

He didn't see the dark shape looming behind him.

He didn't hear the soft footsteps of the figure as it came up behind him.

When he did turn around, he screamed.


	3. What Lies Within

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**What Lies Within**

By nightdragon0

Syndrea heard an odd thumping.

_What was that?! _

Following the sound, she traced the noise to a room just two blocks round the corner. She pressed her ear to the door. The thumping was definitely coming from there. Some other indistinguishable, muffled sounds could be heard as well.

Syndrea pulled out her weapon, a shiny Magnum pistol.

She wasn't one who believed violence and firing were the solution to all problems. It was simply natural of her to only use resort to violence as finial option. Still, everyone had gone through basic military training back on Cybertron and she could at least shoot and hit the targets.

Shooting at targets with a low-power toy gun, however, was nothing compared to the real thing. Syndrea knew she still had a tendency to panic and freeze up in during a battle.

Carefully, she pushed open the door and stepped inside. It was a lab room, probably for research on large specimens. She recognized the standard issue equipment that filled the room.

_Computers, lab stuff, tons of tables, more lab stuff and…huh?_

At the back of the room, there were three transparent cages. It wasn't unusual for a research ship to install these, however one of the cages actually had something alive in it. Some creature inside was being restrained by dozens of steel cables.

Unable to make out what it was, Syndrea moved closer. The creature was almost completely wrapped up in the cables, concealing all but its eyes and making muffled sounds.

"Magnificent specimen," Syndrea gasped, "I wonder how it survived down here?"

(Now I'm a magnificent specimen. Coming from you, that's just great! )

Syndrea jumped. She'd heard the voice, but not aloud. Telepathically. That could only mean…

"Nightfire? Is that you?"

( No, I'm the three-headed demon dog from hell. Hey, I know I look pathetic, but do I look that bad?? )

"Actually, it's kinda hard to recognize you with all those restraining cables wrapped around you."

( Then I guess it's lucky I'm a telepath. Now just get me outta here! )

"Ok, let's see." Syndrea pushed a few buttons on the console. An electric jolt ran through the cables.

( Aaaaarrrrggggghhhhh! )

"Sorry!" Syndrea typed in a few more things. "There!"

The restraining cables withdrew and the door opened. Nightfire staggered out.

"Took you long enough." The dragon muttered.

"What happened to you?"

"Don't ask." Nightfire bent over and picked up his new sword.

"Something I happened to find lying around," Nightfire said, showing it off, "pretty fancy, huh?"

"Anyway, what are you doing down here?" Syndrea inquired.

"I was about to ask you the same question. How bout you explain first?"

Syndrea opened her mouth to speak, but then a loud scream was heard.

"Is that…" Nightfire started to ask.

"CHEETOR!" Syndrea shouted.

* * *

Nightfire was already transforming and sprinting round the corridor, checking his assault rifle as he did. Syndrea was several steps behind, fumbling for her pistol.

There was another scream, followed by several gunshots.

"Here!" Nightfire had traced the source of the noise.

He tried the door. When it wouldn't open, the dragon broke it down with a swing of his strong tail. His eyes went wide with shock for a moment, and then he started firing.

Syndrea reached the doorway and finally saw the source of the commotion.

To say that the creature looked like a huge bull would've been a pretty good description. Except for the fact that it had a snake-like face and a muscular, powerful tail. And it didn't look very happy. Syndrea didn't need any more encouragement to start shooting.

Cheetor was hiding behind several fallen tables. He was firing, but his shots did as little damage as those of his comrades.

Enraged by its new attackers, the creature turned and grabbed Cheetor's leg in its mouth.

"Aarrrgghhhh!"

Nightfire took aim and fired. The creature roared in pain, dropping Cheetor roughly onto the floor. He quickly rolled out of the way of its giant tail.

"Get over here now!" Nightfire shouted. He fired several shots to distract it.

The young Maximal took the opportunity to half-limp, half-stumble over towards them.

"Thanks for the rescue!" he breathed.

"You can thank us if we survive!" Nightfire replied. Nightfire dragged him out of the room and slammed the door shut. The creature was bashing against the door from the other side as the three struggled to hold it shut. Nightfire used his fire breath to weld the door shut. The creature continued bashing on the sealed door. Fortunately, it held.

"What the spotting heck was that??" Cheetor gasped.

"We were hoping you'd be able to tell us." Syndrea panted, leaning against the wall for support.

Another loud roar came from around the passageway. The group turned and could just make out the outline of another of those creatures in the darkness.

All three immediately let loose with every weapon they had. Nightfire emptied his rifle and replaced the spent cartridge, snapping in the reload before the empty clip even hit the floor.

_Damm! I knew I should've brought more ammo! _

The shots weren't slowing the creature down a bit. Nightfire realized they had to try something else. Desperately, he looked around. Nothing but walls and doors all around.

_Hey, wait a minute! _

There was a row of steel cylinders on a thick shelf cut into the wall, held in place by a steel bar. Nightfire noticed there was a release button.

"Get round the corner!" he instructed his comrades.

"But…" Syndrea started to protest.

"Just go! I have an idea!"

As she was dragging the damaged Cheetor to safety, Nightfire slapped his claw onto the button. He shook the shelf so the canisters fell onto the floor. He'd guessed that they'd be holding some kind of highly pressurized gas.

It took all of his strength to lift one of the huge objects and move it into position. Slamming in to the floor, he could see the beast still a fair distance away.

"Come on!"

Nightfire stuck his foot to the canister and shoved with all he had. By some incredible stroke of fortune, the corridor had some slant to it, allowing the canister to roll towards its intended destination.

_This always works in the movies… _

The cylinder and the beast met head –on, the creature grabbing it in its mouth.

_Yes! _

Nightfire continued backing away, firing but being careful not to hit the cylinders. He waited till the creature was close enough, then pulled out a grenade from his belt pouch.

"Fire in the hole!!"

He threw the bomb, sprinted and dove round the corridor to the others, just in time to avoid the blast. The blast of igniting gases and burning metals shook the whole ship.

For a few moments after, no one could come up with anything to say as they slowly uncovered their heads and staggered to their feet.

"You know that that was crazy, right??" Syndrea finally managed to scream.

"Yeah," Cheetor agreed, "no kidding."

"As they say, sometimes crazy just works." Nightfire shot a wide grin of satisfaction at his companions.

* * *

"OwOW!" yelped Cheetor.

They'd found some sort of medical bay in a nearby room. Cheetor was now lying on one of the bunks and having his damaged left leg tended to.

"Just relax." Nightfire reassured him.

Cheetor could see him twist and connect something. From what he could see, the damage was pretty bad. The creature's teeth had torn right through the armor plating, ripping out several wires and dislocating some components.

"Ok, this may sting a little."

Nightfire had a saw-like tool in his claw. He brought it close to Cheetor's leg and activated it. Cheetor immediately felt like his leg was on fire.

"Yyyyaaggg—humpp!" Cheetor started to scream, but Nightfire clasped his claw over the cheetah's mouth.

"Do that again and I'll pull your vocal cords, got it?" Nightfire said in his usual, serious tone. He tapped his other claw on the side of his narrow head. "I've got very sensitive ears."

"I hope you know what you're doing." Syndrea muttered.

"Well, I know that I won't accidentally kill him."

"Oh, I had to ask."

"There, this'll do it until they can get repairs done." The dragon finished by tying a splint, consisting of two metal bars, around the damaged part.

* * *

"Hey, you're actually pretty good at this." Syndrea commented.

Nightfire indifferently waved a claw, as if to say 'nothing to it'.

"By the way, weren't we supposed to meet up with the others," Cheetor asked as he shakily stood up.

"Others?" Nightfire inquired.

"Rattrap and Dinobot are here too. We were supposed to meet them back at the control room." Syndrea said, "hopefully, they've found some info that'll help us get out of here."

* * *

The hallway was clear, no signs of danger lurking nearby.

Dinobot checked every direction again, then moved towards the door. It was completely dark inside the room, not to mention his light had run out of power a while ago. Not even a bit of light from the outside corridor entered the room. Still, running on minimum power, the lights were not that bright at all.

Dinobot was not a transformer to be easily frightened, but he knew groping around in darkness didn't bring much benefit. Fumbling along the wall, a satisfied grin crept across his face when he managed to find a light switch. However, it was short-lived.

When he flicked on the light, what he saw made him jump back and draw both his weapons.

The room was strewn with transformer bodies and parts of transformer bodies. The crew of the ship, no doubt. And who or what ever did that might still be around.

For a tense moment, Dinobot scanned the room, his mind conjuring up every possible danger. Finding none, he stepped in for a closer look.

Big mistake.

Something burst through the wall, throwing him to the other side of the room. Dinobot immediately sprang up to face his attacker. Actually, attackers was a better term.

There were roughly two dozen of them, with only their heads and upper bodies sticking out of the wall.

Snake-like in appearance, their bodies were covered in scales. Each had a mouth roughly the size of his fist, adorn with rows of razor-sharp teeth. They had no eyes, but seemed to know where Dinobot was and were hissing in his direction.

Dinobot fired his eyebeams and managed to knock out a few. The rest then sprayed waves of acid from their mouths. Dinobot rolled out of the way, the acid melting a hole in the floor he'd been standing on a moment ago.

Growling, he fired again. There were simply too many to take out at once. Some of the acid got onto his arm. Dinobot cried out in pain, feeling a burning sensation as the corrosive acid melted through the outer layer of his armor.

"Incoming!"

All of a sudden, Rattrap came crashing in through a ventilation shaft in the ceiling and began firing his pistol at the mutant snakes.

"What are you doing here you fool!" Dinobot shouted.

"Hey, I'm saving ya ass chopper-face!" came the reply.

Rattrap rolled out of the way of an acid spray and fired. Then, he had an idea. Pulling out his second detonator, he called to Dinobot.

"Get ready to bail, lizard lips!"

Without giving the velociraptor time to protest, Rattrap threw the bomb and scurried out, followed closely by Dinobot.

Both had just enough time to dive round the corner before the explosion shook the area and incinerated everything in the room. Dinobot had to cover his head as several pipes fell from the ceiling.

"ARE YOU INSANE!" he screamed.

"Huh, so that's the thanks I get for saving your good-for-nothing butt?" Rattrap replied.

"No one requested your assistance, vermin."

"Yeah, I so next time I just let ya get slagged."

"The situation was perfectly under control until your uninvited interference, mouse."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, heard it all before. So, I take it that's your 'perfect' display of Predacon battle tactics."

"Grrrrrrrrr! Go scurry through a maze, cheese-lips."

"Try and make me…ya overgrown iguana!"

"Big words…from a low down rodent like yourself."

"Hey, ya want me to…"

The pair carried on for quite a while, standing there arguing in the darkness.

* * *

"Those two are way overdue." Cheetor muttered, checking the clock of his internal computer.

The cheetah glanced over to Nightfire, hunched over the main computer and Syndrea, leaning over his chair to look at the screen. The pair hooked up the power cell, which he had nearly gotten killed for, to the computer. It was still visible through an open panel at the base, humming softly and glowing with a light green color.

Nightfire had managed to get the lights on, but not much else.

"This time, do you know what you're doing?" Syndrea asked Nightfire.

"No."

"I thought you were a computer specialist."

"I'm a hacker, not a technician."

"Doesn't that mean you know a lot?"

"Not enough to start up a blasted, complex, high-tech computer system." Nightfire slammed his fist on the keyboard.

"Well, then let's go for plan B." Cheetor said.

"That's something we should have done from the start," Nightfire added in, "I suggested we re-trace our steps, pick up my scent trail with our noses and follow it back to where I climbed down into this place. But no, someone had to insist that we come here and wait for those two…"

"Ok, so that was a bad idea!" Syndrea admitted.

"Indeed."

"Don't push your luck, soldier."

"Oh, I'm petrified." He got up and converted to beast mode, followed by Cheetor and Syndrea, and left the room.

"This way," he said, sniffing the air.

Silently, the group followed him down the corridor. What they didn't notice was that, back in the control room, the main computer flashed and began an automated sequence.

* * *

"Oh yeah, I remember now," Nightfire said, breaking the silence, "the vessel Hyperion. Wasn't that the one whose crew was rumored to be conducting illegal genetic experiments, but could never be proven."

"You're right!" Syndrea exclaimed, "It mysteriously disappeared at some point and was never heard from again."

"Guess it all fits in," Cheetor said, "explains all the weird stuff we've been seeing in here."

"Yup. Seems these guys were pretty nuts." Nightfire shook his head, "makes you wonder what they were researching."

"They were supposed to be on the verge of some breakthrough," Syndrea explained, "but they wouldn't reveal it to anyone. Mighty suspicious if you ask me."

"Anyway, this is it. I…huh?" Nightfire suddenly stopped and stared up at the ceiling. It was definitely the way he'd come in, but now the roof had been covered up.

"Did you seal up the way you came in?" Syndrea asked.

"Not like this." The dragon replied, "Seems like something was activated. A second set of plating to seal off any breakage in the hull."

"Makes sense, this is a spacecraft after all. But without power, how?"

"Cause we turned it on! Man! Can't believe I was so stupid!"

Nightfire drew his rifle and fired. The shots only made dents in the hull.

"Must be reinforced." He muttered. Which also meant they were basically at a dead end. _Huh, like we would've had any better luck waiting for rat-breath and dino-butt._

"Just great!" Cheetor said aloud, "locked doors, bull demons and a haunted ship. All the settings for a science fic horror film. Now just add in some brain-dead killer zombies and we'll have a whole set!"

"CHEETOR!"

A pair of hands suddenly burst out from a floor panel, clawing wildly for the young Maximal.

"Yyyaaagghhh!" he screamed, jumping away as the others fired.

The hands disappeared. Everyone had their weapons in their hands and was cautiously glaring around. All seemed silent and still.

For about a Nano-Klik.

The door Nightfire was leaning against suddenly burst open, throwing him to the floor. A figure was revealed standing in the doorway.

As he moved into the light, Syndrea gasped. He—no, it staggered forward with horrifying moan. It might have been an officer of the ship once for it had what remained of a uniform on. But now, there were huge rips and gashes all over its body. Mech-fluid was leaking out and pieces of circuitry hung out. The left half of its face had been ripped off, exposing the internal circuitry.

Nightfire dropped the creature with three shots. Syndrea realized she had frozen in panic. It fell forward with a spray of mech-fluid leaking out.

"By the Pitt!" Nightfire exclaimed, "Cheetor, you just had to ask for it, didn't you?"

"How…" Syndrea was lost for words, "is this what they were researching?"

"Seems so…argh!" Nightfire yelled. The thing on the floor had suddenly awakened and grabbed his leg.

Waving his arms and wings wildly to keep his balance, he brought his other foot down and smashed its head to pieces.

For a moment, no one could speak. Just stand and stare at the result of some horrifying experiment gone hideously wrong.

"I…don't…believe it." Cheetor staggered.

Then, there was another thumping sound. Before anyone could react, the next door burst open with more of the creatures stumbling into the room. Each seemed even more horrible than the last, with more parts missing, severed or hanging there.

The group didn't stay for a closer look. They turned and dashed back down the corridor.

* * *

As the three Maximals ran for their lives, none of them could have suspected that they were being watched.

Seated in a well-concealed hidden room, a dark, ominous figure was watching their every move through a hidden set of cameras. He'd learnt much from their conversations; who they were, how much time had past, what was going on the world above.

"To think I have these poor, unsuspecting fools to thank for awakening me from my stasis." He smiled with an evil grin, "All my plans, so much wasted time."

He got up and walked closer to the two screens showing the groups of Maximals.

"So, let them play my games, for now."

* * *

"This way!" Nightfire shouted.

He rounded a corner and literally ran into Rattrap and Dinobot.

"Whoa! Man, are we glad to see you! I'd thought…" Rattrap started to say.

"Not now, Ok?" Nightfire cut him off.

"Here!" Syndrea pulled open a nearby door, "it's safe!"

The five transformers piled into the room and slammed the door shut. There was a welcomed click as Syndrea locked the door.

"So, you two ran into the welcoming committee too?" Rattrap panted.

"You don't wanna know." Cheetor replied.

A little while later, the two groups had finished exchanging details. Rattrap and Dinobot had gone back to the control room, only to find it electronically locked. They'd run into more of the mutations as along the way and eventually met up.

"So to round it all up," Rattrap was saying, "we're trapped in a ghost ship which basically has all the settings for a Resident Evil game and who knows what else and no idea how to get out."

No one else had anything to say.

"Aw, man. We're all gonna die."

That, everyone had a response to.

"SHUT UP, RATTRAP!"

"You know, there just might be a way." Syndrea suddenly pitched in. She was reading a journal that had been hidden under a table.

The others looked up.

"All these creatures we've encountered are actually the products of this virus they'd been working on. It's really quite interesting. The virus seems to…"

"Eh, lady," Rattrap cut in, "since no one else here speaks your language, just get down to the details and you'll live long enough to discuss it with Rhinox later."

"Sorry. Well, basically the ship had a malfunction and crash-landed here. They decided to set up a base here to study the numerous life forms on this planet. The virus had many unexpected effects on the creatures on the planet. Then, there was this accident in one of the labs. The virus broke loose and infected the entire crew on the ship."

"Wait a sec. How?"

"That puzzles me too. The virus consists of a mixture of organic compounds and chemicals. It couldn't have been airborne, but had to be administered to take effect."

"Meaning…"

"Either they screwed up so badly that it got into their energon supplies for their re-charge pods, or…"

"Foul play." Dinobot muttered.

"Anyway," Syndrea continued, "when they set up base here, the ship was unexpectedly buried in a landslide and thus some tunnels had to be constructed, leading to the surface. They're here, at this room marked 'Escape Pod Launching Bay'."

"Guess it's our best shot." Cheetor said.

"Then, let's go. The room's located at the rear right side of level 1." Syndrea stood up, pocketing the electronic diary.

"Yeah, it's lucky you found that thing." Cheetor said.

"Almost…too convenient." Nightfire whispered to himself.

* * *

Rattrap pointed his gun around the corner, looked left and right, then signaled for the others to follow. He moved forward again and ran right into a zombie.

"Yarrggghhh!"

BAM! The creature's upper body was disintegrated by the other four Maximals, with their weapons out.

Rattrap sighed and signaled for them to come over.

"It's strange," Nightfire said as he approached, "I feel like we've been watched from the start."

"What do you mean?" Syndrea asked.

"I don't know. Like someone's playing a game with us."

Dinobot frowned, but kept his comments to himself.

"It's your imagination, kid," Rattrap said, "the place has been abandoned for years."

_Either that or it's my instincts giving a warning. _

"We're almost there," Syndrea interrupted his thoughts, "and…uh oh!"

The hallway behind them was beginning to fill with zombies. The group ran ahead to a T-junction and drew their weapons.

"Come on!" Cheetor said, "let's blast these things back to death…er life…"

"Oh whatever!" Rattrap shouted.

They opened fire, their shots tearing the creatures to pieces. Mech-fluid and mechanical parts went flying.

Nightfire pulled out a couple of grenades and threw them. The huge explosion took out most of the remanding creatures, but also had the unexpected effect of splitting the floor and ceiling apart.

Something fell from the floor above and knocked Nightfire down through the hole to the lower level.

After which, some cylinders fell and exploded between the remanding four. Dinobot grabbed Cheetor by the neck and dragged him to the right. Rattrap and Syndrea dove to the left.

The resulting fire was so huge and intense that it separated the two groups.

"Guys!" Cheetor called over the roar of the flames.

"We're Ok!" Rattrap shouted back.

"Meet up at the rally point!" yelled Dinobot.

"How about Nightfire?" Syndrea asked with a worried look.

"The dragon can take care of himself!" Rattrap grabbed her shoulder, "if he survived." He added softly.

Syndrea nodded. She stared down at the hole, eyes filled with concern.

"Let's go, lady!" Rattrap said as he pulled her arm and started running.

On the other side, Cheetor and Dinobot were doing the same.

_I just hope you're all right…_Syndrea prayed.

* * *

Groaning, Nightfire awoke, shaking his head to clear it.

"Ow, my ears are ringing."

He looked up and saw the ceiling above him on fire. Some of its supports began to bend and snap.

"Oh shit!"

He rolled away just as the entire ceiling came down, missing him by a hair. Shakily, he stumbled to his feet. The now roaring fire prevented him from flying or climbing back up. Nightfire saw only one way to go.

This section of the B1 level had been flooded, forming an almost mechanical-looking lake, sort of like the waterfall back on Cybertron where he used to hang out. Looking across the room, he could see a large ventilation shaft leading downwards and to the next area.

_I guess a short swim couldn't do me any harm. _

Storing his rifle carefully, Nightfire transformed and plunged into the cold, dark waters.

* * *

"Hey, wait!" Cheetor gasped.

Limping on his injured leg, he was unable to keep up with Dinobot. Dinobot turned around and scowled.

"So much for the 'Fastest Cat on the planet'."

He walked back, picked up the cat and slung Cheetor, chest first, over his shoulder like a sack of spare parts.

"Hey…" the young Maximal started to protest.

"Don't ask." Dinobot muttered.

"Well, we've got company!" from his position, Cheetor could see all that was behind Dinobot. At that moment, what was there was a bunch of zombies.

"I am currently engaged." Dinobot said.

The warrior knelt down and began firing, presumably at more zombies.

_Hey, no way I'm gonna miss out the action! _

He brought up his gun and fired at the zombies behind them. All of them seemed to crumble rather easily, taking only one or two well aimed shots to bring them down.

_At least these enemies don't shoot back. _

* * *

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Syndrea blew another zombie to pieces. No matter what, there seemed to be even more than before.

"All this shooting isn't getting us anywhere!" she told Rattrap.

"I know! I know!" Rattrap replied, "so…RUN AWAY!"

He took off, running round a corner. Syndrea followed. He led them through several turns, past a few junctions and down numerous hallways. Finally, they took a right at a T-junction and ran right into a dead end.

"Great! I knew your sense of direction was messed up! I told you we should've taken a left!"

"Ok! Then we just go back!"

They started to run back, but a horde of zombies abruptly stumbled in and blocked their way.

"Got any more bright ideas Rattrap?" Syndrea said angrily.

"Well, I don't see ya contributing anything lizard lady."

"Never follow a rat unless you want to be trapped like one! Either that, or end up as spare parts littered across the floor!" she picked up a metallic object from the floor and waved it in front of him for emphasis.

Rattrap immediately beamed as recognized it.

"That's a power core!" he shouted excitedly, snatching it out of her hand, "lady, you're a genius!"

"I beg your pardon?!"

Rattrap spotted a large indent in one of the walls. Large enough for them to take shelter in.

"Get ready for a bang!" he threw the power core and fired a shot after it. Then he grabbed Syndrea by the hand and dragged her into the hole.

"AND TAKE COVER!!"

The following explosion was the loudest one yet. Rattrap saw the wave of flames rush past their hiding place. When the flames cleared, the entire hallway, as well as everything in it, had been incinerated.

"I don't know who's crazier about bombs, Nightfire or you." Syndrea muttered, inspecting the wreckage.

"Well, ain't it the truth." Rattrap grinned.

"So, come on! There's probably more of em' on their way already!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Admit it, you're impressed! I promise I won't tell anyone."

Syndrea kicked him between the legs and dragged him off by the scruff of his neck.

* * *

Using a few powerful strokes of his limbs and wings to propel himself downwards, Nightfire descended beneath the surface.

Feeling his way along the wall in almost complete darkness, he prayed his sense of direction wasn't disoriented. It certainty was not his element and Nightfire quivered at the thought of ending up lost in the pitch-dark waters. And if the tunnel came to a dead end…well, basically he was screwed.

Fortunately, the tunnel began to lead up and eventually, he emerged into a well-lit room. Like the previous, this room was also flooded, but otherwise, seemed clear of any impending threat.

_And that was actually easy. _Nightfire thought, then immediately slapped himself for thinking that.

Just several feet away from him, a large metallic fin had appeared.

_Jeez, it's a cyborg shark! _

Instinctively, he blew off a fire blast at it. Unfortunately, with his snout half-in the water, he had forgotten one important rule about his fire. That it didn't burn underwater.

The resulting hiss of steam had Nightfire cursing his foolishness as he swam away.

Even pushing his muscles to the limit, the huge shark still seemed to be gaining on him. Nightfire dodged it twice and dove under and clawed its belly. That distracted it long enough for him to scramble to shore and climb up onto a nearby ledge. There was a door there, which Nightfire sprinted for.

Not giving up very easily, the huge shark lunged out of the water, jaws aimed straight towards him.

Nightfire barged through the door just as the ledge behind him disappeared into the creature's mouth. With one foot, he kicked its gigantic head away from the door and slammed it shut.

Taking a few seconds to breathe and make sure he was still alive, Nightfire noticed another door in the room. He pulled himself to his feet and staggered towards the door.

Not before he noticed and gleefully pulled a lever in the room marked 'Emergency Drainage System'.

There were some flushing sounds, followed by the noise of water being drained out. Eventually, he heard the sound of one very big fish-out-of-water flopping about.

He knew that he should probably feel sorry for the poor defenseless creature, but instead found himself hoping it died a slow, agonizing death.

"Bite me." He laughed as he left the room.

* * *

"So, they play hard." The dark figure muttered.

He stared at his various screens, showing the groups of Maximals on them. Letting them find that misplaced journal had been a great error. But he still had one last hand to play.

He called up a screen and pushed several keys. A message came up:

Delete all files? Y/N

He pushed Y, then activated a control under the table.

Another message appeared:

The self-destruct sequence has now been activated. Total annihilation will occur in ten cycles. All personnel please evacuate immediately.

_There, it has been done. _

He walked over to the side of the room and opened a stasis pod.

_I shall have to postpone my personal agenda… for now. Let's see where fate takes me._

He got in and closed the hatch. The stasis pod moved and positioned itself below a narrow tunnel. Its thrusters activated, propelling the stasis pod up the escape tunnel.

* * *

"The self-destruct sequence has now been activated. Total annihilation will occur in ten cycles. All personnel please evacuate immediately." The emotionless computer voice sounded.

"Oh, gimme a break!" moaned Rattrap as they ran.

"Oh, shut up!" Syndrea said, angrily.

After blasting their way through countless numbers of the ship's creatures and winding their way round the ships twisted corridors. Finally, they entered a hallway and saw Dinobot and Cheetor at the other end.

Both waved to them and then entered a door.

Syndrea and Rattrap were about to follow when the floor panel in front of them rattled and begun to shake violently. Both jumped back and drew their weapons, ready to fire.

The panel burst open and Nightfire's dragon head popped out.

"Hi people. Miss me?"

"Nightfire! You're alright!" Syndrea breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, but in about a cycle, we won't be!"

With less than a minute to spare, the group reached their designated room. Rattrap threw open the door and saw three elevators that had been constructed into the solid rock. The others had already left on one of them.

An explosion suddenly threw Syndrea into a wall.

"Lady!" Rattrap shouted.

Nightfire, who'd been just ahead of her, turned and raced back to help.

"Go on first!" he called over his shoulder, "we'll catch up!"

"But…"

"Just go!"

Nightfire heard the elevator door close as he grabbed Syndrea in his claws. Being careful not to accidentally cut her limp body, the dragon raced for their only means of escape.

There were just seconds remanding.

"Five…four…three…two…one…"

* * *

Outside, the other Maximals watched as the mountain in front of them erupted in flames and crumbled into pieces.

Rattrap covered his head as fragments of rocks went flying. When he looked up, the mountain, which the ship rested under, had been completely leveled. All traces of the mountain, and the ship as well, had been completely destroyed. Only smoke, dust and piles of rubble could be seen.

_And…_

The dust was beginning to clear now and Rattrap saw no signs of movement other than pieces of falling rocks. Cheetor shot him a hopeful look, but his face fell when Rattrap did not return it.

There was silence…for a moment.

Nightfire burst out from beneath a pile of rocks. He had used the huge, leathery wings of his beast mode to shield himself and Syndrea, held tightly in his arms.

Cheetor and Rattrap rushed over to them, through Dinobot was less enthusiastic about it.

"Whoa man! We thought you were a goner!" Cheetor exclaimed.

"It takes a lot to kill me." Nightfire calmly shook the dust off his wings, "This wasn't enough."

"Your actions were…commendable, through imbecilic." Dinobot huffed.

"Nightfire," Syndrea was on her feet now, "thanks for saving my life."

Nightfire nodded and began to walk away. Syndrea ran after him and pulled him back by his tail.

"Hey, I just thanked you for saving my life and that's all the emotion you can show?!"

"Oh, I sorry m'lady," Nightfire stood up on his hind legs and put a claw to his chest where his heart should have been, "but were you expecting this?"

He grabbed Syndrea and kissed her in front of everyone else.

Rattrap's and Cheetor's eyes went wide. Dinobot growled and turned away.

"Are we satisfied now, m'lady?" he said as he pulled away and resumed his normal walking pace. "Well, we've still got to get back to base."

Syndrea stood there, stunned for a moment. Until Rattrap came up to her.

"Look who just got kissed by his scaly lips. Heh, heh, heh!"

No doubt she, in robot mode, had just been kissed by Nightfire, in beast mode, Syndrea didn't find it funny.

Syndrea furiously kicked him in the mid-section, and walked briskly off without another word.


	4. Clashing Tides

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

_**Author's note:**_ _This story takes place just after season 1 episode 'The Spark'._

* * *

**Clashing Tides**

By nightdragon0

_When a spark goes online, there is great joy. When one is extinguished, the universe weeps._

That phrase came back into Cheetor's thoughts, just as it had for the past few weeks. It was a particularly significant line to him, for a few reasons.

Part of the events that had led to the birth of the new Maximal, Airazor.

It had been a desperate struggle to bring her online and her spark had nearly faded then. Through the combined efforts of Rhinox and himself, Airazor had survived to see the light of day.

When Cheetor had gone offline to donate some of his circuitry to help save Airazor, Rhinox had spoken that line in his dream. Much to his surprise, Rhinox had actually said those lines later on. In reminded him of one of his earliest tangles with Tarantulas, where he had sort of, dreamt of his future.

Naturally, he had questioned Rhinox about it. He could sense that Rhinox didn't really believe it. But Rhinox, being himself, tried not to be impolite about it and replied by saying that it was interesting, but probably just a fragment of his imagination. Tigatron had been more believing, saying that 'perhaps it was fate's way of expressing itself'.

Then something had given him the urge to tell Nightfire about it.

Generally, Nightfire wasn't the talking sort. Even through he could work well enough with others, he always chose to remain away and isolated, keeping to himself.

Like Tigatron, Nightfire never stayed around the base for long. He mostly remained outside in beast mode, patrolling the wilderness.

Anyway, Cheetor had managed to catch up with him when he came in to give Optimus a report. He'd told Nightfire his story, not expecting to get a reply from the silent bot. Nightfire had a puzzled look on his face for a while and surprisingly, gave Cheetor an answer: "Maybe you can see in more than just one perspective."

Not like he'd understood, but Nightfire had disappeared before Cheetor could ask him anything else.

"Cheetor…"

The young Maximal jumped, snapping out of his daydream. He was supposed to be on monitor duty and had almost fallen asleep again.

"Oh, hi Airazor!"

Here was the lady herself. Even through she hadn't been around for very long yet, Cheetor already felt close to her. It wasn't love, definitely, but rather more like a brother-sister bond.

"So," Cheetor continued, striking up a conversation, "you like the place?"

"Oh yes. The natural beauty of this planet is amazing." She glanced out the window at the outside landscape, then turned back to Cheetor.

"And by the way," she asked, "may I know where I can find the guy in black?"

"I assume you're asking about Nightfire. I know he doesn't stay around here much, but I guess that isn't much help."

"I see. I've been trying to get to know everybody, but there are just so many faces to remember. Besides, I wanted to thank him for tuning up my weapons."

She showed Cheetor her wrist-guns. He didn't see any difference, but he knew that where guns and Nightfire are involved, there's always some major work being done.

"I can help." Came another female voice.

Cheetor saw a light brown and black striped velociraptor entering the control room.

"Haven't seen him for a while." Syndrea grinned, showing off the rows of her dinosaur teeth. "Besides, we ladies should stick out for each other, right?"

"Right." Airazor gave her a thumbs-up. "Cheetor, we'll see you later!"

Staring dreamily off into space as the girls left, Cheetor wondered how the next girl would be like.

* * *

"This is the place?" Airazor asked, looking around the mountainous landscape, "Sure not one neighborhood I'd want to walk to."

"Yup. The guy likes these high mountains and open skies. Rather caught up in his wings if you ask me."

With both of them in robot mode, Airazor was easily able to carry Syndrea on her back.

"Over there, at that antenna-like thing. That's the communication device Nightfire uses to keep in touch with the rest of the fleet." Syndrea pointed to a metal tower toped by a miniature satellite dish several hundred feet away, down below on a cliff edge.

They landed near the site and reverted back to beast mode. Syndrea gestured to a partially concealed cave in the side of the mountain.

"This is his little hideout when he's not out on patrol." Syndrea explained. A soft blue light could be seen emitting from the darkness of the cave.

"And it looks like he's home."

The cave was more or less horizontally level and not very deep. Airazor didn't have to step in very far.

There also wasn't much to see. A couple of storage shelves, a small weapon rack, a 'nest' made out of various types of wood, a small stream passing through the cave and Nightfire himself.

The dragon's long body and tail were curled around a table, which held the laptop computer that he was working on.

His head instinctively jerked up at the flutter of Airazor's wings.

"Oh, it's you." he said, surprised, "Airazor, wasn't it?"

"I came along to say 'hi'." Airazor saw a colorful diagram on the computer screen, but she couldn't really make out what it was.

"How'd you find me? This place isn't easy to get to."

"She had some help." Syndrea stepped into view.

"Syndrea…Eh…hi! Been a while, hasn't it?" Nightfire staggered. He obviously hadn't been expecting Syndrea to drop by for a visit. With his tail, he hurriedly closed the laptop and hid it behind his back.

"You're not hiding something from me, are you?"

"Me? Don't ask dumb questions."

"Coming up with another dozen dirty tricks to add to the notebook?"

"Nah, just three this…dammit!" Nightfire slapped a claw over his mouth.

"Let me see!"

"Hey, no way!"

Syndrea kicked his left hind leg, not with her killer claw of course, and caused him to stumble. At the same time, she reached around him and pulled the laptop from the grasp of his tail.

"Hmmm, interesting." Syndrea muttered, staring at the screen.

"That's how she is," Airazor smiled, "can't take no for an answer."

"Yeah, well…" Nightfire sighed.

"And another thing," Syndrea said, putting the laptop down, "it's been quite a while since I last saw you. The last time was just after that adventure we had in the ghost ship."

"I've been busy."

"Busy trying to avoid me?"

"It's my nature. I thought you knew me well."

"Look, I sincerely believe that you shouldn't spend your entire life keeping others away from yourself."

Nightfire was taken aback. He thought for a while, then answered.

"You never fail to surprise me Syndrea. But you don't expect me to answer that immediately, do you?"

"No, of course not. But, it couldn't hurt to come see me once in a while. And the others too. Contrary to what you've experienced before, there are bots who care about you."

Nightfire had nothing else to say on that topic. He could only give a confirmation nod of his head.

"Syndrea, I'd like to know," he asked, quickly changing the subject, "did you guys get anything out of that journal you got from the ghost ship?"

"Sadly, nope. All the information had been deleted when I accessed it. Probably pre-programmed into it."

"Must've been a mega bummer, huh?"

Beep! Beep! Beep! The miniature communications antenna outside sounded.

"What's that?" Airazor asked.

"Base is sending me a message." Nightfire flew over to it and tapped a few buttons.

There was a lot of static, but eventually Rhinox's voice could be heard.

"Nightfire," Rhinox said over the radio, "we have an incoming stasis pod at grid Delta. Do you copy?"

* * *

"Message received." Nightfire replied, "Got the two ladies here with me and ready to go! Details?"

"We'll need you to take your group to coordinates 5-3-8 and recover one of the pods. Optimus is on his way now to retrieve another one that seemingly turned up out of nowhere. Got that?"

"Will do. Over and out." Nightfire turned to the girls. "Heard that?"

Both nodded.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Airazor said, "Let's hit the wind!"

"I'll go by foot." Syndrea said, "It'll slow you both down if you have to carry me."

"Ok. We'll meet you there!" Nightfire yelled back as he took off.

"Any tips for a newcomer?" Airazor asked. She spread her wings and flew beside him.

"Just watch the terrain, watch the sky and watch for Preds. That's all I can say!"

"Yes sir!"

* * *

The stasis pod touched down safely. It begun its automated scanning sequence and soon a reddish-brown fox poked her head out.

_Where am I? _The new Maximal wondered.

The area around her was a mountainous region with nothing other than dozens of canyons, craters and small hills. She noticed a pair of brown foxes scampering away in the distance. No doubt where she'd gotten her new mode from.

"Thank you!" she called after then, even through they wouldn't have been able to understand it.

_Hmmm, _she looked over herself, _agile, quick and looks dependable. Not to mention that lovely brown coat too. Now I just wonder where everyone else is?_

In a few light jumps, she climbed to the top of a small hill.

"Hhheeeelllllllllooooo!!" she called out, "Anybody out there?"

"Over here!" a scratchy voice replied out of nowhere.

She was turning her head round trying to find the source of the voice where a missile suddenly blew up the ground in front of her, throwing her face first to the bottom of the hill.

"Aaarrrgghhhh!"

"Such a lovely lady." The voice continued, "It's such a shame I must destroy you."

The Maximal got to her feet, shaking the dust out of her ears. She now saw her attacker, a red and silver bot hovering in the sky above her.

"Predacon!" she realized.

"Oh, no need to shout. Name's Terrorsaur," he introduced himself, "and I'll be delighted to make your first moments, and also you last, extremely painful!"

"Well Mr. Terror-whatever," the Maximal replied, "if you want me, come and get me!! Calico, maximize!!"

Her transformation was similar to the cat bots (Cheetor and Tigatron), except without the beast head on the chest. Her coloring was mainly silver and brown, with some black on the 'helmet'. Her appearance was also similar to the cat bots' robot modes, but with a slimmer body and a feminine face.

Ferocity shone in her sky-blue optics and she pulled a pair of Uzi pistols from her belt compartment and opened fire.

"Hhhaaaaaahhhhh!"

Terrorsaur rolled out of the way and unleashed his own volley of shots. Calico had to duck behind what remained of the hill for cover.

"Slag! This is not my day!"

* * *

Not far away, Optimus Primal flew over the desert landscape.

"Rhinox said that this pod seemingly appeared out of nowhere. But if it isn't one of ours, where'd it come from?"

The possibilities seemed endless. Maybe the scanners had failed to pick it up during its planet fall. Or maybe it belonged to another ship and had been buried underground for years. Or even the ghost ship, Hyperion. But the Maximals had confirmed that there hadn't been any survivors and the ship had been completely destroyed, its remains buried under tons of solid rock.

Still…

The sounds of gunfire and explosions abruptly interrupted his thoughts. Optimus increased his speed.

Minutes later, he reached the battlefield. Four Predacons: Megatron, Scorponok, Waspinator and Deathwing, were all firing at a figure that was hopelessly pinned down behind his stasis pod.

And being the all-time good guy that he is, Optimus Primal naturally rushed to help. He fired several shots from the sky, forcing the Predacons to retreat and duck for cover. Dodging more shots from the Predacons, Optimus landed beside the crouched Maximal.

"Are you alright?" Optimus asked as he returned fire to the Predacons.

"Thanks to you!" the new Maximal replied. He was in beast mode, a Black Panther with a shiny coat, deep yellow eyes, sharp claws and fangs.

"I'll call for backup!" Optimus tapped his com-link with one hand while he continued firing. "Optimus to base. Requesting backup at…"

"That won't be necessary!"

Optimus was suddenly slashed in the face. As he howled in pain, he was barged out from his cover into the open and promptly shot by the Predacons. He was thrown back against a stone wall with a smoldering hole in his chest plate.

"What?!" he gasped.

"Haven't you figured it out yet?" the Black Panther sneered, "Shadowflare, terrorize!"

The panther's head split in two and formed his shoulder pads. Legs and arms emerged from the beast's upper and middle body. The Predacon had a dark green and black coloring and had a black, rectangular visor for his eyes, much like Tarantulas.

His weapon was a bow gun, which he loaded and pointed straight at Optimus.

"Oh no…" Optimus muttered.

* * *

A flying piece of rock hit Calico at the back of her head, causing her to loose her weapons. Terrorsaur took another shot at her, throwing the dazed Maximal to the floor.

"Ha!" he laughed, "you're finished Maximal!"

"Not if we have anything to do about it!"

"Huh?…OW!" Terrorsaur cried as his gun was shot out of his hand.

Airazor somersaulted from the top of a nearby hill and landed on her feet, wrist weapons armed and ready.

Nightfire descended from the sky, in his huge dragon mode, and landed next to her, spreading his wings and roaring.

"Argh! No fair! I was winning!" Terrorsaur moaned, seeing he was now outnumbered.

Nightfire signaled for Airazor to help Calico up while he taunted Terrorsaur.

"Fair? I thought Predacons don't know the meaning of the word 'fair'."

"Well, that includes you, traitor!" the dactyl screeched. He charged at Nightfire firing his shoulder cannons.

"Indeed." Still in beast mode, Nightfire pulled out the Phoenix Blade, the sword he always kept under his wings. Nightfire held up the awesome weapon. Its handle was molded in the shape of a Phoenix's head and its blade shone with a dazzling green glow of energon.

Swinging the sword, he deflected each one of the shots. He carefully waited till the dactyl was in range, then pounced and grabbed Terrorsaur by the shoulders. He didn't even have time to react was he was suddenly spun round and had his head driven into the rocky floor.

"Mmmmggg…ggmmff…. ggggffffff!" came Terrorsaur's muffled cries, as he comically waved his arms and legs above ground, pathetically struggling to free himself.

"But I know that slow is…" he fired a fireball from his mouth at a large boulder above them, dislodging it.

It fell and squashed Terrorsaur with a loud splat.

"…and you're it!"

* * *

Calico was still in a daze. She was barely aware of what was going on around her. She hardly even noticed the female Maximal shaking her and talking to her. She hadn't been able to make out the conversation going on around her. But something about the last phrase the male Maximal had said struck her like a hammer on the head.

_But I know what slow is and you're it!  
_It was so… familiar.

Those were her last thoughts before she passed out.

* * *

"Hey! Are you Ok?" Airazor shook the new Maximal again.

"She's fine," Nightfire assured her, "just passed out from shock."

"I assume that's good to hear."

Then the com-link came on.

"Optimus to base. Requesting backup at…aaaaarrrgghhhh!" there was a scream, followed by gunshots and the hiss of static. After which the com-link went dead.

"You'd better get her back to the base," Nightfire pointed to Calico, "I'll go give monkey boy a little help."

Whether it was a command or a suggestion, Airazor didn't have time to ask as Nightfire spread his huge wings open and flapped, throwing up clouds of dust in the process, and flew off.

"Well it's fine with me!" Airazor called after him. She walked over and picked up the unconscious Calico. "Knowing him, he'll be able to manage it." She said to herself.

* * *

The other Predacons had now come to join their comrade.

"Ah, hahahahahaha!" Megatron laughed, "you Maximals are soooooo gullible. Yeesssss."

The Predacon commander stepped forward and jabbed his tail weapon at Optimus' chest.

"Any last words, Primal?"

"Aargghh!" Optimus staggered up to one knee, "You'll never succeed, Megatron! The flame of justice cannot be extinguished!"

"In my humble opinion," Shadowflare grinned, "I believe that it **shall** now be extinguished."

"Ha, you're finished!" Said Scorponok.

"Ooohhh! Wwaasspinator thinks so!"

Deathwing remained silent, but loaded his gunblade with a click.

"Are those your last words?" Megatron sneered, "I'll be sure to put them in my diary."

A huge shadow suddenly blocked out the light.

"Not on my account!" a voice declared.

"WHAT!!"

Megatron was suddenly dive bombed by a black dragon. He fell back and knocked all the other Predacons down as well. The next moment, a smoke bomb was thrown on the floor, releasing a thick white fog, which shrouded the area.

In the midst of it, a pair of talons suddenly grabbed Optimus Primal and carried him by his shoulders.

"Hey boss," Nightfire's neck was bent downwards so his head was upside down when he looked Optimus in the eye, "how bout shedding a few pounds? It would make it easier for both of us!"

"Thanks," Optimus gasped, "but we're not out of the water yet!"

"No kidding!"

The smoke was beginning to clear and Nightfire steered to the top of a nearby cliff. Nightfire cried out in pain as he landed on his left shoulder.

"You never got that shoulder fixed?" Optimus asked, pulling him up. He was referring to the time he'd been stabbed in that spot by Tarantulas a few weeks months ago.

"It's just a minor wound." Nightfire gasped, pressing a claw over the injured shoulder.

"It isn't now!" Yelled Optimus.

Both ducked behind a cluster of boulders as the Predacons spotted them.

"Wwaasspinator zzeess them!"

"Well, start firing!" Megatron said angrily.

The two Maximals covered their heads as small rock fragments and bullets flew everywhere. Nightfire reached his tail under his right wing and pulled out a cylinder roughly the length of his claw. It was translucent, with the two ends covered by silver covers and a glowing yellow substance in it.

"What's that?" Optimus asked as he armed his wrist cannons.

"You'll see." Nightfire answered, then to the Predacons, "You want some? Come on and get it!"

The tossed the cylinder.

All the Predacons looked up.

"What's that?" Scorponok asked, pointing to it.

"You fools!" Deathwing screamed, "It's one of his bombs!"

"Take cover!" Megatron ordered.

But there was nowhere to run. The cylinder hit the floor. A bright light immediately engulfed the whole area. The Predacons slowly uncovered their heads.

"Heeyyy! Waasspinator zzilll in one piece!" Waspinator exclaimed.

"In my humble opinion, it was clearly a energon-powered flash tube designed to emit large amounts of visible electromagnetic spectrum upon contact and cause chaos among our ranks to provide them with a much needed advantage." Shadowflare commented.

All the Predacons stared at him with their mouths opened.

"In my humble opinion," he growled, "IT'S A FLASHBANG, YOU FOOLS!!"

"Ah, yes. I knew that." Megatron quickly said.

"A flashbang?" Deathwing shouted, "Can't you come up with something better than that, Nightfire?"

"How about this?" Nightfire roared as he threw another cylinder. Only this one was filled with a brown substance.

It hit the floor, opened and released a light brown gas.

"Ha, this smoke bomb is defective!" Deathwing made a face.

"Oh, is it?" Nightfire's voice replied.

"Eerrrkk! Ow! Oooh! Aarrgghh!" Scorponok began jumping about and frantically scratching himself with his large pincers.

"What do you think you're doing?" Megatron yelled.

"Arrgghh! It's…eerrkk…. itchy…arrghhh!"

"Wwwwaaahhhh! Waasspinator feel it too! Owowowowow!" Waspinator began scratching himself too.

"Aarrrggghhhh! My body itches! What's happening to me??" Deathwing was next.

"I...in…argh…m…m…my…owow…hu…ow…mble…argh…opini…yargh…nion…" Shadowflare staggered, "Yyyyaagghhhh! It burns!!"

"What's going on around here y…argh! Ow! Yargh! AAArrgghhhh! Not me too! NO! Aarrghhhh!" Even the mighty Megatron joined the fray.

Up above on the cliff, Nightfire viewed the hilarious scene with distinct pleasure. Optimus too, was absolutely stunned.

"Just what did you do, Nightfire?"

Still grinning from cheek to cheek, the dragon reached his tail under his wing and pulled out a small empty bottle. He tossed it to Optimus.

Optimus read the label out loud.

"100 guaranteed-to-work itching powder. Use with caution."

"Something I got out from under Rattrap's bed during my last visit. Man, the things you can find there!"

"You're a real sneaky one aren't you?" Optimus grinned, patting the dragon on the head.

"Indeed."

The pair took a last look at the comical scene and, laughing all the way, flew back to the Maximal base.

* * *

Later on, Optimus was discussing some battle strategies with Rhinox when Calico, escorted by Cheetor, walked in. He'd been showing her around the Maximal Base. Optimus stood up and walked over to her.

"Welcome to the crew." He said, shaking her hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Optimus Primal," she replied, "again."

"Erm, again?"

"Surely you haven forgotten your old rival, have you?" Calico made a gun with her fingers and cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh yes, I remember now."

"You know her bigbot?" Cheetor asked.

"We were, well…rivals when we were both in the academy."

"Always competed to be the best in everything." Calico added in, "He even tried asking me out once."

Cheetor's eyes went wide.

"Yes that was, ahem, when I was around your age Cheetor."

"But of course," Calico continued, "I was like 'gimme a break man, you just aren't my type!' "

Rhinox burst out laughing.

"Brings back memories doesn't it?"

"Certainly." Optimus replied, slightly embarrassed.

"At least you've grown into an excellent commander." Calico said. "Proud to serve you."

"You're not too bad yourself." Optimus replied, "But I last heard from you when you were a captain in charge of some exploration ship. How'd you end up here?"

"Well," Calico's expression darkened, "I had an unfortunate accident, but I guess my spark was still functional enough for them to reformat me into a protoform. And so it seems I…"

At that moment, Nightfire happened to enter the room, in robot mode. For the first time, Calico and him got a good look at each other. Calico abruptly stopped talking.

There was complete silence as the two stared at each other. The silence was soon broken.

"YOU!" Calico screamed. She pulled out her melee weapon, a whip, leapt over the table and charged at Nightfire.

The dragon reacted instinctively. As the astonished Maximals watched, he launched a spinning kick, which took the weapon out of Calico's hand. He drew his sword in mid air and ran her through as he landed.

Time seemed to be at a standstill. There was an astonished silence in the room. Nightfire realized his sword was still stuck through Calico's body. He quickly pulled it out and shoved her limp form into the restoration chamber. Hastily, he pushed a few buttons on the control panel.

"Nightfire…" Optimus begun.

"I don't believe it." Nightfire muttered. He thumped his fist on the restoration chamber's door.

"I assume that you know her as well."

"More than just know her," Nightfire's eyes were staring down at the floor, "I'm the one who killed her."

"WHAT!"

"How?"

Astonished gasps came from everyone else in the room.

"Was that the unfortunate accident she was talking about?" Optimus inquired.

"Indeed. And I'm sure she'll be quite willing to tell you about it herself, so…"

"Nightfire, stay here." Optimus reached out and grabbed the dragon by the scruff of his neck before he could run off. Nightfire considered shoving his way out, but decided against that.

"I think this is something all of us have to hear about."

"I'm afraid it's a rather ugly story." Nightfire sighed. He deliberately turned away so Optimus couldn't seen his face. Right at that moment, he could only find comfort in staring down at the cold, metallic floor.

* * *

The entire Maximal fleet had gathered in the control room. Even Tigatron had been called back.

Optimus had made sure that Calico and Nightfire were at opposite ends of the room, separated from each other. The two looked ready to spring on each other at any time. Nightfire leaned against the wall and folded his arms while Calico was staring harshly at him.

Optimus spoke up.

"Now that we're all here, I want to know exactly what's going on between you two."

"I'll tell you," Calico pointed an accusing finger at Nightfire, "that Predacon is a deceiving, lying, mass murderer!"

"Oh, how surprising." Rattrap muttered.

"SHUT UP!" Nightfire and Calico yelled at the same time.

Astonished murmurs arose from the rest of the fleet. Optimus banged a fist on the table like a judge.

"Well, I don't mind being called a lying, deceiving, Predacon," Nightfire replied calmly, "but I much prefer the term 'assassin'."

"So you're saying it's true?"

"Yes," Nightfire nodded, "the files you have on me here probably aren't complete. You'll need to access the database back on Cybertron the see my full record."

"Nightfire…" It was Syndrea. The dragon quickly held up a claw to silence her. Last thing he needed now was her distraction, or even worse, her sympathy.

"I'll never forget what he did to me as long as my spark's online!" Rhinox pushed Calico back into her chair and she calmed down a little.

"We'd like to hear the whole thing." Optimus said, eyeing both carefully.

"You want to tell them, vixen," Nightfire shot a scornful glare at Calico, "or should I?"

"You begin, Predacon." Calico growled.

Nightfire cleared his throat.

"Alright then. It was several stellar cycles ago, back on Cybertron…"

* * *

**(Flashback scene: Cybertron Spaceport.)**

Captain Calico looked up at the new, shiny ship on the landing pad in front of her, all ready for departure.

"So this is it."

She basically had the same appearance as her Beast Warrior form, just without the animal parts. Patting her side pouches, she checked her pair of Uzi pistols again.

Fully loaded, fully functional. She always took great pride in the management of her weapons.

She was suddenly knocked to the floor as someone hit her from behind.

"Ooff!"

"Hey, sorry!"

She turned to find a tall, male transformer offering his hand to help her up. She accepted it and was pulled to her feet. Briefly, she assessed the guy. He had the alternate mode of a fighter jet, with its wings on his back and tail behind him. The nose and cockpit of the plane folded down onto his chest plate. His primary color was black with dark blue on the wings. A blue-colored visor covered his eyes, which was in a single, continuos piece.

"Think nothing of it." Calico told him.

"Thanks. Say," he pointed to the parked ship, "I'm looking for the Captain of this vessel."

"Well, you're looking at him."

"Cuse me?" he asked, confused, "Oh!"

He immediately snapped to attention and saluted.

"I'm Lieutenant Phantom. You must be Captain Calico, I presume."

"Expecting a man, weren't you?" Calico returned the salute.

"Yes sir…er ma'am!"

She carefully checked his identification card.

"Your superiors describe you as a hotshot." She remarked.

"Afraid you'll have to live with it, since I'm going to be your second-in-command."

"Let me tell you one thing kid, I don't tolerate any funny business, understood?"

"Completely."

"Good." They shook hands. "Now let's go, before we miss our ride."

So, the ship took off without any trouble. The crew believed they were on a routine supply trip, but only Calico knew the true purpose of their mission.

They were carrying the hexagon key, one of the four keys needed to unlock the storage hold of the sacred golden disc. It was being moved to a more secure location. All seemed to be going perfectly well.

Two days into their trip, Calico walked into the control room. She found the pilot, Raynar, in the chair.

"Raynar," Calico asked, "have you seen Alticus anywhere?"

"Sorry, nope." The pilot raised an eyebrow, "I've been here the whole night. Oh yeah, and Phantom was supposed to have relieved me a mega-cycle ago. I wonder if…"

Phantom came barging through the door.

"Sorry I'm late!" He gasped, "I kinda…overslept. But I'll make up for it! Promise!"

"Well," Calico shot him an annoyed look, "I'll let you off with just a warning this time."

She didn't like having their schedules messed up.

_Jeez, _Calico thought as they left the room, _I'd wish they'd stop sending me these kids. _

"Hey, lighten up!" Raynar placed his hand on her shoulder, "He's just a kid."

"Yeah, one who's supposed to be second in charge of this ship."

"He'll learn. Just give em' time. Come on, drinks on me!"

* * *

Calico and Raynar were in the cafeteria when she got a call from Phantom on the bridge.

"Captain," Phantom's voice came over the com-link, "the maintenance crew down at section 12 found Alticus."

"Good. I want to know where's he's been all this time."

"Unfortunately, you can't."

"And why not?"

"Cause he's dead."

"What?!"

"They've got his body at the medical bay, I think they can tell you more."

* * *

"Shot three times at point blank range," the medic reported, "probably never had the chance to defend himself."

Calico looked down at the soldier's lifeless form.

"Where'd you find him?"

"His body was stuffed in one of the maintenance lockers at section 12."

Grimly, Calico contacted Phantom in the control room.

"Phantom, I need you to check for any breakages in the hull, the shields, or other anyway someone could've gotten in or out."

"Scanning…" The beeping of the ship's computer could be heard over the com-link, "Negative. Everything's up and fully functional. No breakages, no nothing."

"Then the murderer may be one of us."

"Oh, that's just great!"

* * *

Two more killings occurred in the next three days. Calico ordered an increase in security measures, but it didn't seemed to have much effect. Phantom and Raynar spent much of their time taking turns to pilot the ship and watch the security monitors.

When the fourth murder occurred, Calico vowed to bring down the killer at any cost. She spent hours trying to find a connection between the victims, but it wasn't until a week later that she got a hunch.

The answer had been so frighteningly obvious.

Two of the four had access to the storage room where the hexagon key was kept. A quick check of their quarters confirmed her suspicion.

She was the only other crewmember to have access to the hexagon key. The killer already had access to their precious cargo, so he probably wouldn't waste anymore time. He was just looking for an opportunity to escape with his loot. Only problem was that she had no particular suspect in mind.

She'd known most of the crew for a long time and had made sure to keep a watchful eye on the newer ones. It was clear that everyone was troubled by the recent events, but none seemed even a bit guilty of the crimes.

She was in her quarters the next day when Phantom reported a power loss in one of the engine rooms. She barely had time to make it to the bridge before the lights suddenly went out.

"What the?!" Phantom gasped, "Should I have the maintenance team check it out."

"Do it."

Fortunately, the com-links were still functional. Calico listened to the clangs of the crewmen's footsteps on the ladder leading down.

"Whoa! Looks like a major problem!" one crewman said.

"Yeah, let's not waste anymore time."

Calico waited and listened to the comments.

"Captain," one reported, "it seems that some of the main wires were cut!"

"Can you give me more details?" Calico asked.

"Hold on, we're opening the main power generator now and…slag! Get outta here now! Be…"

"It's a bomb!!"

"Too late!"

The loud screams were followed by an even louder explosion.

"Hello?" Calico desperately tapped the com-link, "come in!!"

Phantom shook his head sadly. A second explosion rocked the bridge.

"I'm going to organize the crew! You keep watch here!"

"Yes ma'am!"

_The killer has chosen to strike now_, Calico was sure of it.

With her Uzi in hand, she raced for the heavily secured room that held the key to the golden disc. She was racing past her quarters when a large pipe, jarred loose by the explosion, fell and knocked her out.

She came to with her ears still ringing. Remembering the situation, she forced herself to her feet and sprinted for the storage room. Calico was horrified to find the room empty and Raynar lying outside with a gaping wound in his chest.

"Raynar!" Calico ran to his side, "Hang on there!"

"He's…" Raynar gasped weakly, "…trai…tor…" his voice faded out in a strangled cough as he pointed down the corridor.

"Raynar!!"

Her friend was dead. Howling with rage, Calico ran round the corridor--just as a body flew and hit her. It was another crewmember. Calico was sickened by the loss of yet another friend, but she'd heard the gunshot. The murder had to be close. And she'd make him pay dearly for this.

She heard footsteps coming from behind one of the doors. She immediately barged through it…and came face to face with Phantom. Clutched in his fist, was the hexagon key, its bright color shimmering in the darkness.

For a moment, neither one could speak.

"So, it's been you all along." Calico finally managed to find her voice.

"Took ya this long to figure out? Jeez, you're pitiful!" Phantom sneered. Something about him had so suddenly changed. It wasn't just his tone of voice.

Earlier on, he'd been an ally, a friend you could trust. Now, he seemed like a completely different personality. Like a dark aura had surrounded him; like a person who you could feel was evil on first sight.

"You won't get away!" Calico clutched the handle of her pistol.

"So, stop me. You're welcomed to try." Phantom was doing the same. "But believe me or not, I'm justified in doing this. We all have to survive, one way or another."

"After what you've done? You don't know the meaning of the word!"

"Maybe not…"

In a split second, Calico's gun was in her hand. She fired as the same time that Phantom twisted his body sideways and launched his own attack.

Calico barely even felt the pain. Next thing she knew, she was lying face down on the floor.

"…but I know what slow is, and you're it. My regards."

Her vision was going blur now, her senses cloudy. The blackness of the other side was beginning to engulf her.

…_no…c…can't…_

* * *

Phantom didn't stick around. He knew his foe was down for good and the detonator he'd planted was going to go off any moment now, erasing all traces of the ship…and its crew.

_All lost in an unfortunate engine malfunction._

Making sure the key was securely placed in his sub-space pocket, he threw open the outer doors. Ignoring the blaring alarms, he stared out into the black vastness of space for only a second before he leapt.

Swiftly transforming into his fighter jet mode, he rocketed away just as the ship exploded in a huge ball of crimson flames.

A Predacon ship then appeared out of transwarp space, just on the edge of his radars.

_My ride, and right on time too. _Phantom grinned inwardly as he flew, _hmmm…I'll make sure to demand a raise, especially for this mission. _

* * *

**(Back to present time)**

"So that's the way it went." Nightfire finished. He shot a glance at Calico, who'd also told the story from her point of view.

"But if you killed her then," Tigatron spoke up, "then how…"

"Embarrassing as it is," Nightfire cut in, "I believe I missed hitting her spark and blew her fluid pump instead. It was enough to destroy her body, but her spark had a chance of survival."

"And apparently it did," Rhinox concluded, "it must've been recovered from the wreckage and reformatted into a protoform transformer."

"Grrr! I still want a piece of 'em!" Calico growled, "I'll never forgive what you've done!"

"And I'd be quite happy to rectify the mistake I made of not blasting your spark to the Pitt!"

Both jumped up onto the table with their melee weapons out. Airazor managed to jump between them in time.

"Hey! Stop it…oof!"

She was accidentally shoved and lost her balance. Tigatron 'accidentally' caught her as she fell.

"STAND DOWN! BOTH OF YOU!" Optimus ordered.

The two soldiers unhappily kept their weapons and stepped off the table, eyeing each other the whole time.

"Nightfire, I want you to return to your patrol on the outer perimeter. You'll stay positioned there as a permanent scout unless called for. Calico, you'll stay around the base and the areas around it. Is that clear?"

"Fine, as long as I don't have to see her." Nightfire growled. He transformed to his huge dragon mode and flew off through the room hatch.

"Nightfire!" Syndrea called after him. As usual, he ignored it and disappeared into the distance.

"I'm going to my quarters." Calico said as she left the room.

One by one, Cheetor, Rattrap and Syndrea choose to quietly leave the room.

"You know that it won't be a permanent solution." Rhinox said.

"I know," Optimus replied.

"Hey, err," Airazor smiled, "thanks stripes."

"Anytime, m'lady."

"Tigatron, I need to ask a favor of you." Optimus called the white tiger over.

"What is it Optimus?"

"Try to keep an eye on Nightfire for a while and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Consider it done." Tigatron saluted, "beast mode."

He got onto the elevator. It started to move but was abruptly halted halfway.

"Huh?"

"Sorry, mind if I tag along?" Airazor stood the top with a warm smile, "beast mode."

"Errm…Well…" Tigatron considered it as the elevator continued its descent.

"Well?"

"Only if you can keep up!" The white tiger playfully shoved her to the floor and started running.

"If I can keep up?! Just watch me!" Airazor spread her wings and took to the skies, flying after him.

* * *

Meanwhile, Optimus noticed Dinobot standing in a corner, lost in thought. The other ex-Predacon in their group had not uttered a single word throughout the entire story.

"Nothing to say Dinobot?"

"Nothing Optimus Primal, except that I foresee many problems between those two."

"Well that's just Prime…"

* * *

In the weeks that followed, tension could clearly be seen being built up between the two. Two enemies now ironically forced to the same side.

It was an unstable bond, ready to break at any moment. And it was also an opportunity that would not be unnoticed by the Predacons.

By chance, their patrol routes happened to clash in a forest on the outskirts of Maximal territory. Each one suspected an enemy was nearby. Readying themselves for battle, each transformed and drew their weapons. At the chosen moment, each one sprang out, only to find their weapons pointed at each other.

For a moment, there was silence.

"Oh, it's just you." Nightfire finally spoke up. There was a distinctively scornful way in which he had said 'you'. And it was something Calico wouldn't stand for.

"Get out of my way dragon." She growled.

"Why don't you get out of mine first?"

The two soldiers stood facing each other in a staring competition. Calico knew that her anger was showing on her face, but Nightfire hid his emotions well. Neither could be sure who threw the first punch, but when that happened, there wasn't any stopping.

A punching and shoving match broke out. Nightfire, however, had an advantage because he was bigger and stronger. He shoved Calico into a tree. Gritting her teeth, she whipped out her Uzi's and fired. Nightfire had to dive to avoid the bullets and landed with a thud on the forest floor.

"Filthy beast!" she cursed.

"Grrr…I'll show you a beast!" With a thunderous roar, Nightfire returned to his dragon mode. Dozens of forest animals were sent fleeing at the sound of his roar.

Calico was the least intimidated, letting loose with bursts of Uzi rounds. Nightfire roared furiously as he blocked the shots with his wings. Rage overtook his logical thinking and he begun spewing flames everywhere, forgetting that they were in a forest. More small animals were sent fleeing from the flames.

Ignoring her burns, Calico dropped her guns and pulled out her whip, making its end into a curved loop.

Nightfire charged at her, head lowered. In one swift motion, she dodged to one side and threw the lasso around his heck. The loop hooked just below his lower jaw, where the head met the neck.

Calico pulled the lasso taunt, choking the dragon was causing him to fall. Nightfire sprang up and in a furious bound, attacked again. Calico repeated the stunt, jumping aside and pulling the lasso taunt. This time the dragon pulled back, dragging Calico off her feet. She was instantaneously head butted into the nearest tree.

She didn't even have time to recover when Nightfire pounced, pinning her back to the ground. The dragon stared her in the eye, growling.

_He's completely lost to his beast instincts! _Calico realized.

Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do as his jaws moved in for the kill. A shot rang out from nowhere, throwing Nightfire off her and leaving his jaws frozen in a cube of ice.

Tigatron stood nearby, weapon raised, with an angry scowl on his face.

"I must insist that you both stop this foolishness at once!" he shouted. Now seeing Tigatron in that kind of angry mood was very uncommon. But if he were, then he really meant business.

Seeing the small fires and blackened forest around them, Calico momentarily felt ashamed. Tigatron sprayed a cloud of mist from his weapon, dousing the flames.

"I apologize." She said softly.

"You should save it for him." Tigatron said. Nightfire was just getting up and shaking the ice off his jaws. "His beast instincts are completely out of control. That's a threat until we can calm him down."

As if on cue, the dragon lunged.

Tigatron grabbed his jaws, struggling against the immense power of the berserked dragon. Deciding she had to help, Calico jumped onto his back and held the dragon's wings down. Nightfire wasn't very large, she noticed, just his huge wings, long neck and tail made him look that way. But he was certainly very strong. Calico doubted that she would have been able to fend him off alone.

Meanwhile, Tigatron was almost thrown off once or twice, but managed to hold on. Twisting and turning until he had Nightfire's head clasped under his left arm.

"Calm yourself," he coaxed, "we are your friends. Tame the beast within and cast out your anger."

Slowly, his breathing relaxed. His struggling lessened until it finally stopped. Tigatron let go and gestured for Calico to do the same.

Nightfire blinked, as if snapping out of a trance. He looked up, staring hard first at Tigatron, then at Calico.

"Fine start blaming me! Everything's always my fault!"

Tigatron opened his mouth to answer, but he never got the words out.

"Attack! NOW!" a shout rang out.

Tigatron was sent flying into the forest as a shot hit him squarely in the chest.

"Aaarrrrrgghhhhh!"

"Stripes!" Calico yelled.

Nightfire barged into the vixen as a shot made a blackened hole in the spot she'd been standing on. Both ducked behind a cluster of boulders and more shots were fired.

"Let's worry about ourselves first!" Nightfire said.

"That's one thing we agree on." Calico took a quick look. They had the entire Predacon force firing at them, bar Tarantulas and Scorponok.

"I would've detected em' earlier if you hadn't been distracting me." Calico muttered as she fired.

"Well excuse me, I believe it was you who was distracting me!"

"Says who?"

"Me!"

A grenade landed between them and exploded before either had a chance to do anything. The blast knocked the pair of Maximals offline. Then, all the Predacons vanished, leaving only Terrorsaur and Shadowflare.

"The wonders of a holo-projector." Said Shadowflare proudly. The Black Panther twirled the small device in his hand.

"Huh, not bad for a science geek." Terrorsaur muttered. "But that was **my** grenade. Surely you must've noticed my superior battle skills."

"In my humble opinion, this is the fifth time this mega-cycle you're informed me of that fact." The panther answered, rather annoyed. He almost regretted teaming up with the featherless freak. "And another point, how should we deal with these unconscious Maximals?"

"Hmmm, let's see. We could get the pleasure of scrapping em' right here and now. Or we could bring them back to Megatron and get into the fool's favor. And even get rewarded for it!"

"In my humble opinion, I suggest we do it quickly." Shadowflare looked down at his wrist computer, "For I detect more Maximals approaching this location."

* * *

Airazor has been flying on her patrol route when she picked up a bunch of Pred signatures. She'd arrived on the scene only to find Tigatron trapped under a fallen tree. After much pushing and shoving, she managed to move the huge piece of wood off him.

"Ow!" Tigatron moaned, dusting the mud off his face, "I feel like I got hit by a tree."

"It was an oak tree to be precise."

"The Predacons! Calico and Nightfire!"

"Hey, relax. There's no one here but you."

"The Predacons must've taken them hostage." Tigatron staggered to his feet, "We have to follow them!"

Airazor nodded. "But can you make it?"

"I may…require some assistance for a while."

Airazor placed his hand over her shoulder and supported him as they begun walking.

"Which way?"

"The Predacon base." Tigatron said, "It's the most obvious place."

"Shouldn't we get the others?"

"No time. But we might be able to catch up if we hurry."

* * *

Moaning, Calico drowsily opened her eyes. And found herself locked in a cage. Nightfire, still in beast mode, was in another cage next to her. The cages were suspended above a lake of molten lava, making the temperature unbearably hot.

"Awake at last," He smiled, "welcome to Pred central."

"Great! In more trouble than before."

"Hey, chill." Nightfire stood up and stuck his tail through the bars of his cage.

"What are you doing?"

Nightfire didn't answer as he carefully placed the flexible tip of his tail into the lock on Calico's cage.

Seconds later, she heard a click and the cage door swung open.

"Hmmm. Impressive."

"See that vent there? Just go through and follow it to the end. Up two levels and you'll be able to get out." Nightfire suddenly flopped back down on the floor of the cage. Calico saw mech-fluid leaking out of a wound at his stomach."

"You're hurt!"

"I…might not make it. You'd better get out of here while you can."

Calico was stunned. The damage looked serious, but from her point of view, there was no way to examine its extent

"There's no way I'm leaving without you!"

"Ironic, a mega-cycle ago, you wanted me dead."

"Well that's a pleasure I'm reserving for myself and not some stinking Preds." She dug into her sub-space pouch and found one of her Uzis still there. She was pulling it out when Nightfire stopped her.

"Don't. See that blue light at the lock of my cage?" he pointed, "Do anything to break open the cage and every alarm in this base goes off." He grinned for a second, "Must be my wonderful reputation."

"Is there a way to turn it off?"

"There's a room just above this one. Blow the controls there and the alarms go offline. With just about anything else in here."

"So it's a generator room?"

"One of them, anyway."

"Ok. I'll be back soon." Calico said, returning to beast mode. "Just stay here."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

With a graceful leap, the fox cleared the space between her cage and the air vent in the wall. It was surprisingly large and she was able to maneuver without much restriction.

_Great, helping out my enemy._ _I amaze even myself sometimes. _

* * *

Her journey was rather uneventful. Several times, she'd heard voices coming from the floors above but encountered no great obstacles other than the slippery air vents.

It was sometimes a tight fit, squeezing through the narrower vents and climbing vertically upwards in the more slippery ones. But Calico eventually found her way into the generator room.

The ventilation shaft was located on the ceiling of the room. From this position, she surveyed the situation. Just one Predacon, Shadowflare, was in the room. The panther had his back to her as he was working on a computer terminal and muttering something to himself.

_Good, this is gonna be easy! _

"Calico, maximize. Stealth mode." She transformed and snapped a clip into her Uzi. Then, as noiselessly as she could, slipped down into the room.

Shadowflare heard a light thud and spun around.

"Who's there?"

Taking his bow gun in hand, he walked over to the stack of crates that Calico was crouched behind. Calico waited until he was practically above her, then jumped up and drove an uppercut into the bottom of his chin.

"What?! Ugh!" The Predacon staggered backwards and fell.

Calico used the opportunity to take aim and fire past him, blowing up the computer console behind him.

All the lights in the room went off. In the darkness, Shadowflare got up and fired his bow gun. Calico rolled out of the way of the energon arrows and launched a low kick to his feet. Shadowflare found his face flat on the floor again.

"Interesting. A cat that lands on his face." Calico laughed.

"Grrr. You're beginning to annoy me, lady." Shadowflare growled as he got up and dove to retrieve his bow gun.

Calico jumped onto him and both struggled to get a hold of the weapon. The fox was able to shove the weapon into Shadowflare's chest as the Predacon pulled the trigger. Shadowflare hit the floor with a cry of pain.

Scorponok happened to stumble into the room and witnessed the fight.

"The Maximals have escaped!" he cried.

Calico shot twice with the bow gun, one knocking Scorponok's hand away from his com-link and the other making a black, smoldering hole in his chestplate.

"Yes!" Calico smiled, admiring her handiwork.

Scorponok stumbled back and flopped against a wall. His head hit a huge red button on the wall.

Immediately, alarms begun blaring.

"Warning. Power outage on lower levels." The emotionless computer voice said, "Intruder detected in generator room 4."

"Dammit!" she cursed.

"They're over here!"

"Get them you fool!"

The voices came from just around the corridor. Calico slammed the door shut and threw her weight against it as the Predacons pounded on it from the other side. There was suddenly the sound of a loud crash followed by the sounds of struggling. Then the noises stopped.

Calico cautiously opened the door to find a familiar dragon standing on top of Waspinator and Terrorsaur.

"You've sure done a fine job of sneaking around." He winked. "Here." He tossed over her whip and her second machine gun.

"Nightfire? But you're…"

"Injured? Me?" he indicated the wound at his stomach. The flow of the mech-fluid had stopped. "Superficial, no internals damaged."

"What? Then you were…"

"Acting? Of course! I wasn't too sure that you wouldn't leave me to rust here. So I had to give you some incentive for 'rescuing' me." Nightfire laughed, "Man, I'm so good actor that I could win an Oscar."

Calico slapped him so hard that he fell over.

"Ow!"

"Let's just get the heck out of here before the whole base is on us." Calico muttered.

"Agreed. But DID you have to slap me so hard?" he dashed past her into the room and begun using his claws to pry open one of the floor panels.

Calico followed, but noticed something hooked on Shadowflare's belt.

"A holo-projector." She gasped, snatching it off the fallen Predacon. "And they caught us off guard with it too!"

"Well, go figure it out later!" Nightfire ripped open the panel and slipped down the hole.

Tucking the holo-projector into her sub-space compartment, Calico followed.

"Don't you ever bother transforming?" Calico asked as she struggled to keep pace.

"Only if I want to frag em' instead of burn."

"Forget it. Anyway, where is this place?" The sounds of the alarms had begun to die down. They were now running in a narrow, dark passage. The ceiling, however, was rather high.

"It's a secret passage out. Fastest way I can remember from all my previous tangles around here." Nightfire turned his head back to speak, "the only thing you're gotta watch out for it…yyyaaaarrggghhh!"

The dragon crashed into a sticky, blue web, and entangled himself in it.

"Hehehe!" came a sinister laugh, "Look who stumbled into my web today. Tarantulas, terrorize!"

The spider dropped down from the ceiling, laughing his trademark laugh.

Calico's guns were out in an instant and blasting away. Tarantulas sidestepped and returned fire with his spider-leg machine guns. As they traded shots, Nightfire was still tangled in the web and pressed his body as low to the ground as possible to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

There was much jumping and firing in the narrow passage until Calico ducked behind Nightfire and pulled up one of his wings as a shield.

"Ow! Hey, my wings can't take that kind of abuse for long!"

"I know! I know!"

"Hehehehe! Surrender now, Maximals!" Tarantulas sneered.

An explosion suddenly rocked the passage.

"Huh?" Tarantulas looked up, only to see a huge rock coming down. "Doh' no."

BAM!

"Man," Nightfire grimaced, "that has got to hurt."

"Hey! Over here!"

Light streamed into the tunnel through a hole in the ceiling. Above ground were two figures waving at them.

"Airazor! Tigatron! Jeez, am I glad to see you." Calico yelled back.

"Catch!" Tigatron tossed them a rope.

* * *

Megatron watched the screen as it showed four Maximal signatures leaving the area. Furious, he banged his fist on the arms of his chair.

"That child is proving to be an extreme annoyance. Yes."

"That's how he earned his reputation." Said Deathwing, coming up behind Megatron. "I see why you hired him to help you with the 'steal the golden disc' operation."

"He had such potential. A prodigy." Megatron sighed, "Such a waste of where his loyalties lie."

"That cage didn't hold him for long." Deathwing flicked through several screens, showing the empty holding cages and the damaged Predacons.

"I should never have listened to Terrorsaur's babbling. That fool will personally answer to me."

"Well," Deathwing said thoughtfully, "as his rival, I know his weaknesses. One, in particular, could easily be exploited against him. And, it could also be used to cause some chaos among the other members of the Maximal fleet. "

"You obviously bear a distinct grudge against him. But inform me of your 'plan'. "

Grinning, Deathwing leaned closer to Megatron and whispered something into his ear. As the Predacon leader listened, he broke into a smile, then an evil grin, then a laugh.

"A deliciously, evil, insidious scheme. One worthy of even my complements. Perhaps there are actually other Predacons around here with logic circuits." Megatron turned back to the monitor, "Go and get the other Predacons repaired. I have much planning to do."

"As you wish." Deathwing's footsteps died down into the darkness.

Megatron opened a compartment on the side of his chair and stared gleefully at the object within.

"Over-confidence has always been your weakness, my boy," he said to himself, "now it will be your downfall. Yours and the entire Maximal fleet. Haha!"

* * *

The four Maximals walked on in silence until Nightfire suddenly stopped and transformed into robot mode. It stood up to around the same height as Tigatron's, or slightly shorter than Optimus Primal's.

"Calico." He begun.

Calico stepped forward, noting Tigatron and Airazor were moving out of range.

"It wasn't too bad working with you for once."

"Strange," she replied, "I was about to say the same about you."

"Let's make a deal. Once the Beast Wars are over, I'll give your fair shot at getting me. One-on-one duel. But don't go crying to the others when you lose."

"That's cause I won't."

"So, that's a deal?" Nightfire asked, offering his hand.

"Challenge accepted." Calico firmly took his hand and shook it.

Nightfire suddenly grabbed her wrist with his free hand, flipped her a full 180 degrees and slammed her onto her back with a judo throw.

"Seems you're on the loosing road already, girl." He laughed.

"Speak for yourself." Calico grabbed his tail and pulled him down as well.

"Alright, enough with the jokes." Tigatron walked over and helped both to their feet.

"You've both got to survive the lecture Optimus is going to give you two first." Airazor said.

Nightfire and Calico looked at each other.

"Now that is a fact." They replied in unison.


	5. Beyond Expectations

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**Beyond Expectations**

By nightdragon0

Boom. Boom.

Rattrap was jarred awake.

"Whoa, what the?"

Jumping up from the chair which he'd fallen asleep in again, the Maximal stepped up to the control panel and pushed several buttons.

"Rattrap, what's going on?" Optimus Primal came barging into the room. "By the way, you were sleeping on monitor duty again, weren't you?"

"Eh," Rattrap staggered, "sorry boss monkey, but we've got trouble in the neighborhood."

Rhinox silently entered the room and sat down at his station. He keyed in several commands which brought numerous monitors online. The whole Predacon fleet could clearly been seen firing off their weapons.

"Jeez," yawned Cheetor as he entered, "Ya think those stinkin' Preds could at least wait till morning to launch a full scale assault?"

Calico came jogging up as well.

"What's the big emergency?" the brown fox asked, although she already knew.

Optimus and Rhinox were discussing the situation.

"Shields at 80." Rhinox muttered, "They're holding, but not forever."

"External auto-guns…"

KA-Boom!

"Off-line." Rhinox sighed.

"We're gonna mount a counterattack people!" Optimus declared, "Now…hey, where's Dinobot?"

Rhinox pushed a button. The view on one of the monitors changed, showing a pair of familiar green eyebeams being fired. Raspy growls and grunts could be heard. Dinobot was forced to dive for cover as he was bombarded by gunfire, missiles and other explosive projectiles.

Calico whipped out her twin Uzis.

"I shall provide some assistance for our…ally." She said and descended the elevator before anyone could stop her. She wasn't very fond of ex-Predacons, but leaving a comrade out there just wasn't her style.

Optimus begun giving out orders.

"Rhinox, contact the rest of out units and have them back here, ASAP. Cheetor, you take manual control of the ship's guns. Rattrap, you're with me."

"But big bot," Cheetor protested, "I wanna…"

"That's an order!" Optimus sharply cut him off before stepping onto the elevator with Rattrap.

Cheetor turned to watch Rhinox pushing buttons to activate the com-links, then reluctantly sat down and switched the guns to manual targeting.

* * *

"Well, what do you think, Nightfire?" Syndrea asked.

The two Maximals, both in robot mode, stood in front of the huge stone pillar. They were in a large cave, located at the base of a mountain. The cave didn't look like it had been naturally formed and the odd stone pillar within was only further evidence of this. Not to mention the pillar seemed to be holding up the entire cave and probably the mountain as well.

Silently, Nightfire stepped up and ran a claw across the strangely smooth surface of the stone pillar. Closing his eyes in deep concentration, he focused his psychic powers.

Syndrea waited patiently, knowing the difficulty in her companion's task.

"One thing I can tell you," Nightfire finally spoke, but without looking up, "it's not from the aliens we've come to know and hate."

Syndrea just nodded.

Nightfire unsheathed the Phoenix Blade from its place beneath his left wing and held it up to the pillar. The normally green glow flickered and changed through a multitude of colors, before turning a pale blue.

"I don't sense the same aura I got from that pod that kidnapped Optimus, nor from the control tower of the floating island. It's…something else…"

The dragon had been referring to their previous contacts with the alien beings. More recent was the latter, Syndrea recalled. Nightfire had been up stuck there on the island with Airazor and Tigatron. Probably not the beast of…

Nightfire suddenly stumbled backwards; interrupting her thoughts as she instinctively grabbed onto the black dragon.

"What happened?" she queried.

"Not sure," Nightfire muttered as he stood back up, "but…"

He held the sword up. Its energon blade continued to glow brightly.

"What's with the sword?"

"Oh, this?" Nightfire spun it in his hand. "This isn't any ordinary weapon, you know. Think of it as a medium for which I can channel my energies through to amplify my powers."

"Isn't that good?"

"Yeah, but just tires me out faster." He muttered dreamily, continuing to face away.

Syndrea grabbed his shoulder and pulled him closer.

"Something's troubling you." She commented.

"Come on! Just get it off your scaly chest!"

"Nothing much. Just that I feel like something's up. It's a long shot, but my 'feelings' often have a way of turning themselves into reality."

The sounds of footsteps came within earshot.

"Hey guys, we're back!" Airazor jogged up with a small, box-like device in her hand.

"Ugh!" Tigatron grunted as he followed, carrying the bulk of a rather large portable scanner. He sat it down as gently as he could.

"Sorry, but this is the lightest piece of equipment with all the necessary capabilities for our little subject here." Syndrea jabbed a thumb towards the pillar behind them. She immediately got to work setting it up.

"Then what's the heavy one like?" Tigatron wondered.

The others watched patiently as Airazor held the hand-held device up to the stone pillar. Syndrea pushed a few keys on the computer it was connected to.

"Readings are up and," Syndrea begun, "yikes! Going right off the scale!"

Smoke started spewing out as the computer gave overload beeps.

"RUN!" yelled Tigatron.

The whole group sprinted round the corner.

A deafening explosion followed, leaving nothing of the scanner but a blackened spot on the ground ad scrap metal everywhere. The pillar, however, hadn't sustained the least bit of damage.

"Now," gasped Airazor, "that's something you don't see everyday."

"Quite a blast too." Syndrea added in, smiling at her own joke.

"Everyone!" Tigatron called. The others moved over to him. "Seems we have to go." He tapped a blinking red light on his wrist-mounted com-link.

"That's the 'emergency' beacon." Airazor said. "They're calling for us even through we're this far out?"

"Probably the Predacons." Growled Tigatron, "Let's go!" he transformed and took off running. Airazor followed suit, only in the air instead.

Syndrea was about to leave when she noticed Nightfire staring intently at the strange pillar.

"Nightfire?"

"Huh? Oh, never mind. We'll just get moving! We've got some butts to kick, now haven't we?"

Syndrea was confused by the dragon's abrupt mood change, but held back her thoughts.

_For now._ She decided.

"Beast mode!"

"Beast mode!"

A black dragon took to the skies, followed by a tan and black velociraptor down below.

* * *

"Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" Dinobot fired his eyebeams.

Terrorsaur dodged.

"Hahaha! Missed me!" the aerial Predacon taunted. "Arrrggghhhh!" he was abruptly shot out of the sky.

With a Xean: Warrior Princess- style battle cry, Calico somersaulted off the nearby rocks and landed beside Dinobot.

"I did not request your assistance, female." He growled.

"Perfect. Cause I'm not offering any!" Calico replied.

A nearby explosion interrupted them.

Both made one final stare at each other before drawing their weapons and returning fire.

* * *

"Whoa, man!"

Rattrap ducked to avoid having his head blasted off. However, he was still showered by bits of debris. Optimus had also taken cover and was a few feet to his left.

Rattrap chanced a quick peek from his hiding place.

Megatron was standing pretty much out in the open, no big surprise, and firing away. Blackarachnia, Scorponok, Deathwing and Shadowflare had taken cover behind a cluster of boulders and were letting off occasional shots. The remaining three flyers had Dinobot and Calico occupied. Cheetor and Rhinox weren't having much luck with the Axalon's weapons.

_Just a click! Aren't we missing som…_

"Yikes!" Rattrap had to duck down again. "Yo! Boss monkey," he shouted, "we are seriously screwed ya know!"

"Keep fighting!" Optimus yelled back between shots, "and wait for our reinforcements."

"I hate it when he talks like that." Rattrap sighed.

As the battle progressed, Rattrap continued firing until he heard the click of his emptied gun. He was reaching for his reloads when a scraping sound startled him. Rattrap spun round.

Shadowflare had managed to sneak past them!

He had his back to the ravine, which the Axalon lay across, and had his bowgun pointed straight at Rattrap. The Maximal's mind raced. The panther wasn't a very good shot and Rattrap figured he'd manage to reload and fire before the Predacon could hit him.

Fortunately, something else stopped him first.

A black dragon rose from the ravine behind Shadowflare. He spun around in shock as the dragon's shadow covered him. The Predacon took aim, but Nightfire clasped his jaws on his gun arm before he could fire. Nightfire jerked his head back, ripping off Shadowflare's right arm in the process. He barely had time to feel the pain before Nightfire swung his tail and sent him flying.

Rattrap watched as the Predacon's green and black form went flying into the ravine, screaming all the way. Nightfire looked straight towards him, winked and gave Rattrap a thumbs-up before taking to the air.

"Well," Rattrap sighed, "guess I owe the kid."

* * *

While the others advanced with Megatron, Blackarachnia stayed where she was and continued to fire.

"Humph, I'm not getting slagged on this stupid mission," she cursed, "who does Megatron think he is dragging me out…"

She suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Huh?"

Jumping up, she found Airazor standing behind her. Blackarachnia whipped up her weapon, but Airazor kicked it out of her hand and sent a punch straight into her face.

The female spider fell unconscious to the ground.

"Ouch," Airazor muttered, crouching down and rubbing her hand, "that's a lot more painful than it looks."

* * *

Optimus was busy firing when Nightfire ran up beside him. The dragon had transformed and readied his rifle.

Together, they were able to put several holes in Scorponok, who hit the floor with a dull thud.

"Nice timing." Optimus commented.

"The others are coming up behind the Predacons," Nightfire informed him, "they'll strike from the rear and shake Megatron up a little."

The Maximal commander nodded his approval. It was a simple, but appropriate plan.

* * *

_Man, I could shoot better than this! _Cheetor thought as he fired another burst from the ship's weapons. Waspinator and Inferno dodged and continued their assault, joined but Deathwing.

The base rocked from another round of their firepower.

"We can't take much more of this." Rhinox muttered. He leaned across the computer and pulled a lever. "Darn! The backup power isn't coming on!"

He pulled open the computer panel and begun pulling and connecting wires. Cheetor quickly turned back to the monitor. One of the screens showed Optimus and Nightfire firing at Megatron.

Cheetor suddenly spotted Tarantulas. The sneaky spider had appeared to the left of his comrades and was slowly creeping up, unseen to both. Cheetor hit the com-link.

"Big bot! Look out!"

He got only static in return. The system must've been damaged as well! Rhinox was too preoccupied with repairing the computer to notice Cheetor sprinting onto the elevator.

The young Maximal didn't bother waiting for the elevator to fully descend before he jumped off. Pulling out his 'gut-gun', he ran. Optimus and Nightfire weren't far away.

Cheetor shouted as soon as he could see them.

"Guys! Watch out!"

At that same instant, Optimus happened to glance in the appropriate direction and saw Tarantulas loading a dart into his gun.

"Get down!" Optimus yelled, dragging Nightfire to the ground.

As a result, the dart flew right over their heads and hit Cheetor right in the center of his chest. He fell with a yell of surprise.

"Cheetor!" two voices simultaneously exclaimed.

"Argh!" Tarantulas groaned, clenching his fists. He obviously hadn't hit his intended target. However, the spider quickly scurried off when Nightfire took to shooting at him.

Syndrea appeared from another direction, completely out of breath.

"Airazor…and Tigatron…are…giving…Megs his…money's worth…" she gasped.

"Both of you get him to safety," Optimus said, indicating Cheetor's unconscious form, "I'll give the others a hand." He activated his jets, but turned back, "and tell Rhinox to get the shields back to full power!"

Syndrea was still panting as a missile came towards them. Nightfire unsheathed his sword and deflected it harmlessly into the ravine.

"Come on! Let's go!" he shouted, pulling her by the hand and swinging Cheetor over his shoulder. The pair sprinted and made it up the elevator. Rhinox was still busy with the computer.

"How much longer till the shields are back up?" Syndrea inquired.

"Just a little…" Rhinox began.

An abrupt explosion threw everyone off their feet. Rhinox was sent flying into a wall. After which, he flopped face first on the floor. Dropping Cheetor's body, Nightfire ran to Rhinox's side while Syndrea got up and moved to the computer.

"Hey big guy! Wake up! You're supposed to get the computer running!" Nightfire desperately shook the unconscious bot. It was no use; Rhinox was out cold. "Syndrea?"

"I don't know how to get it working either!" the velociraptor admitted.

"Never mind, just go over to the open computer panel and do everything I tell you to."

Syndrea moved without hesitation. Nightfire knelt over and placed his claws at the sides of Rhinox's head.

"Come on big guy," Nightfire muttered, closing his eyes and concentrating, "open your mind to me and think! What's the quickest way to get the shields up?"

"Nightfire?" Syndrea asked.

"At the control panel, you should see a large gray wire." Nightfire began.

"I see it. What'd I…"

"Don't touch it! Look to its sides. See the colored wires."

"Yeah, I do!" There were six smaller wires, three on each side. "Colored white, red, green on the right; black, blue and yellow on the left."

"Good. Connect the red and blue wires."

Syndrea twisted the wires.

"Done." She turned her head and looked at he monitor. A shield power of 20 was displayed, and it was rapidly dropping.

"There should now be a raised red button. Push it."

"Gottcha!" Syndrea found it and slammed her fist onto it.

"Now, green to…"

Syndrea took the green wire in her hand.

"…green to…" Nightfire paused. He sounded uncertain.

"Green to what? Hurry up!" Syndrea cried desperately. The shield level seemed to be dropping faster than ever now.

"Grrrrr! Yellow!"

Syndrea twisted the wires. Immediately, a blue button rose. She didn't need Nightfire to tell her to push it. Triumphantly, she watched the shield shoot up.

It so happened that Waspinator and Inferno were charging towards the ship. The shields came back up just in time to send the duo flying off.

"Aaarrrggggghhhhhh!"

"Wwwwaaahhhhhh!"

The remaining Predacons began to withdraw, per Megatron's command.

Syndrea mopped her brow as she watched them go. Nightfire was leaning against the table, looking equally relieved.

"You read his mind?" Syndrea asked.

"Guess you could say that," Nightfire replied. A cheesy grin crept across the dragon's face. "But the last part about the yellow wire was a lucky guess!"

Syndrea's jaw dropped.

"You must have all the luck in the world!"

"Uh-huh."

* * *

Nightfire carefully dragged Rhinox over to the restoration chamber. The larger warrior awoke, smiled and gave him a weak thumbs-ups. Nightfire returned it with a nod and closed the chamber's door. Beside him, Syndrea was doing the same with Cheetor.

"Place sure is a mess." Calico commented as she came up the elevator with Dinobot. She looked around at the blown open control panel and the wires hanging out of it. "I should be able to do some clearing up. Rhinox can do the rest, once he's up and running of course."

"How fared the battle?" Dinobot asked. He groaned and covered a large blackened area on his left shoulder.

"This guy here was playing hero when I didn't need him to." Calico jerked a thumb at Dinobot's wound.

"You surely would not have survived that blow, female." Dinobot growled.

"Would to!" Calico shot back, jabbing a finger at Dinobot's chest. It was interesting, as she had to tiptoe to do that. "Besides, I didn't asked for your opinion pal!"

"Then, I was informing our comrades here, not refreshing your memory."

"Grrr! That's it! You got a problem with me?"

"Maybe it's you who has the problem."

"Does not!"

"Does to!"

"Does not!"

"Does to!"

"Hey, hey!" Rattrap came up the elevator. "Looks like ol' Dino-butt found someone else to argue with. Oh, I'm so hurt!" he continued in a mocking voice.

"Shut up, Rattrap!" both soldiers shouted.

Syndrea burst out giggling. Nightfire covered his face and turned away, but his body was still shaking, unable to contain his laughter.

"Looks like everyone came out OK." Optimus said as he came up. The others were right behind him.

"Yeah," Syndrea began, "Nightfire just…"

Unseen to everyone else, Nightfire used his tail to whack Syndrea's leg. She wasn't supposed to reveal how'd he done it, after all.

"…twisted a few wires here and there." She finished. Nightfire gave her an affirmative nod.

* * *

"Stupid Megatron." Blackarachnia cursed for the eleventh time that night. The night's attack had been a total mess up; not to mention she'd received a nasty punch in the face too. "Grrr…one of these days…"

She continued babbling to herself about all the things she planned to do to Megatron as she walked down the dark, dingy corridors of the Predacon base. She did make it a point to stop when she neared the central corridor that led to the control room.

_Huh? What was that? _

It sounded like two people arguing. Blackarachnia pressed her body against the wall and listened.

"That wasn't our agreement." Sounded like Deathwing, the vulture.

"So maybe it wasn't, but that little error has most certainly led to a much more, interesting set of circumstances. Wouldn't you agree?" that was definitely Megatron.

"Interesting? Disastrous is more like it! We were supposed to kill him with the virus. Instead, we hit the wrong guy and now we don't have to resources to make any more."

"No matter. But we are in a much better position to, how shall I say, 'negotiate' with Optimus Primal. Yes."

"The point is, that wasn't the plan!"

"Hmmm. You seem to bear a certain hatred for that particular Maximal."

"You would too if you only knew the truth…" Deathwing burst out, then he fell silent, realizing he'd said too much.

"Truth? Is there something you're not telling me?"

"It doesn't matter! I want to finish him off my way, my style and…ggarrrgghhh…"

Megatron had apparently grabbed him by the neck.

"All right!"

There was a loud thud as Deathwing was roughly dropped onto the floor.

"This one isn't just any Predacon traitor."

"Hmmm. Go on." Megatron would be leaning forward and rubbing his chin now.

"He's one we should all know very well…"

The pair lowered their volume and Blackarachnia strained to head their voices.

_This is getting very interesting indeed…_

* * *

Later that night, the repairs on Rhinox had been completed. As he stepped out, he noticed the room was empty.

Everyone else had retired to their quarters. After all, Megatron wouldn't attack twice in once night, especially since his troops had been significantly damaged.

Looking towards the second restoration chamber, Rhinox noticed the lights were on inside. Curiously, he brought up its status screen. It indicated that repairs on Cheetor had been completed. No serious damage or viruses detected.

Yet, the young Maximal hadn't come out.

"Cheetor?" Rhinox tapped the door.

He was greeted by a soft moan. Rhinox pulled the door open to find Cheetor, in robot mode, slumped in a corner. He seemed to be fine, but Rhinox had a strange feeling.

"Cheetor? Can you hear me?"

No reply.

Closing the door, Rhinox activated the scanning device. All he got, over and over again, was the same negative message about no residual damage.

After getting the same message ten times in a row, Rhinox begun to feel that something was very wrong. He ran down the corridor and dragged Optimus out of his quarters to the control room, waking up everyone else in the process.

Nightfire was the first one to arrive at the control room.

"I think something's wrong with Cheetor, but I just can't figure out what." Rhinox was saying.

"Keep trying." Optimus urged.

"Mind if I have a look?" came Nightfire's voice.

He was in his huge dragon beast mode now. Due to the long neck, Optimus and Rhinox had to look up. Rhinox nodded.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Optimus asked as he stepped aside.

From the way that the dragon's claws flew across the keyboard, Optimus decided that he did.

"I went to med. School," Nightfire answered without looking up, "that was one place where I really did study."

At first, he kept on getting the same results Rhinox had. Then, he pushed a button and brought a screen up.

"I'm going on visual." He said.

By this time, everyone else had gathered in the room. Nightfire rapidly flicked through the screens until he came to one particular image.

"Enlarge." He instructed the computer. A grim look crept across his face. "There's the problem."

"It just shows his spark." Optimus said.

"No, look closer." Nightfire enlarged the screen again. Strange yellow patches were visible on the normally blue colored spark.

"It's a…virus?" Rhinox muttered, leaning closer.

"Yeah, this one was arguably the most deadly virus ever created by Predacon scientists." Nightfire continued.

Everyone stared at him.

"You know about it?" Optimus asked.

"I can tell you people all about it, but it's not a very promising story." Nightfire calmly stepped back and folded his arms.

"Hey, just spit it out man!" Rattrap burst out. Optimus held up a hand to silence him and all other quires.

"Tell me."

"In simple terms, it's called a Transcendent Virus. It goes straight for the victim's spark and drains the energy from it till its extinguished, but not before causing a great amount of pain to the victim, leaving them pretty much weak and helpless. This was one of the things even the Predacon ruling councils had banned. The last traces were supposed to have been wiped out, but you never can tell, now can you?"

"But we've never heard of it." Rattrap commented.

"Obviously," Dinobot spoke up, "It would've been disastrous in terms of diplomatic issues if the Maximal Elders ever came to know of this."

"So you knew too?"

"Methods I would never resort to," Dinobot growled, "such dishonorable fighting techniques."

"Is there a way to cure it?" Optimus asked, tapping Nightfire on the shoulder.

"Let him go." Nightfire muttered and begun to walk to the elevator.

Rattrap blocked his path.

"You didn't answer the question pal!"

"I did."

"And you're saying we should just leave him be?" Rattrap asked angrily, pointing to Cheetor's motionless form on the table.

"In a battle, you'll lose soldiers. In a war, people die. It's simple. Want to know why I was med. trained? Out on missions, it was my job to assess any injuries. Those that can be saved, we save. Those who can't…well I need not mention that."

"Now you're starting to sound like ol' chopper-face here."

"And why not? We have a lot in common," Nightfire sneered, "except for his stupid sense of honor."

"Grrrrrr!" Dinobot snarled, but Tigatron held him back.

"Now, you listen…" Rattrap begun.

_Well done! Start a three-way argument among bots that aren't too happy with you. _Nightfire silently cursed.

"Look! There isn't any anti-virus in existence, although Megatron may try to bluff and the only other way is too risky and too insane that I don't think it's practical to be even tried out! And it's a fact that you'll lose troops in a war! So…" Nightfire shoved Rattrap out of the way and continued walking. This time, it was Optimus who stopped him.

"Some things are irreplaceable." He said softly. There was a slight hint of plea in his voice.

Nightfire glanced around at the somber faces of the others. Furious, in Rattrap's case. Dinobot simply snorted, folded his arms and turned away. He then caught Syndrea's eye. Her face seemed to imply, _please, just this once, _even through she hadn't spoken it out loud.

"OK, fine then!" Nightfire gave in, "But I reserve the right to say 'I told you so!' "

He moved to the computer and begun typing. After which, he gestured for Rhinox to have a look.

"These are specifications for a laser." Rhinox said.

"Yes. We'll have to burn the virus off, inch by inch."

"However," Rhinox continued, "to get a laser this intensified, we'll have to channel nearly all the base's power into it. And that means we're sitting ducks while we're at it."

"In addition, Cheetor's spark will have to be temporarily removed from his body." Nightfire finished off. "But of course, Megatron will probably anticipate this move and attack while our shields are down. At least I'm not in charge here."

Optimus thought for a while.

"Let's do it." He said grimly.

"Great, you'll have about two days or so." Nightfire said, "Give me some time to rest, then I'll join you."

As the walked down the corridor, he could still hear Optimus giving out orders. Rhinox to start working on their device. The others, even Tigatron and Airazor who'd stayed to help, to take shifts on patrol. He would personally relate the information to Cheetor.

"Nightfire! Wait!" It was Syndrea. Deciding he didn't want to hear anything from the female raptor, he slammed and locked the door to his quarters. Ignoring the repeated knocking, Nightfire curled up on the bunk and closed his eyes.

_How the hell did I get myself into this mess? _

* * *

So, night wore on into morning, then day.

Nightfire spent his time with Rhinox, testing and preparing their equipment, checking their calculations. The other members were mostly outside on patrol, returning occasionally to rest and recharge.

Finally, Nightfire managed to get his claws away from all the numbers on the screen and made his way to the firing range, which was basically a long hallway that had been set up for practice.

He was busy driving holes in the targets with his rifle when the door opened.

_Perfect the last person I want to talk to right now._

"Nightfire, we have to talk." Syndrea said firmly.

"About what? We've been through this already."

"Last night. You really didn't have to act that way."

"It's a Predacon way. My way."

"You're a Maximal now."

"No, I am not. And I never wanted to be. I'm Predacon though and through!"

"It doesn't have to be that way."

"Why not? You think the Maximal society is gonna welcome me with open arms?" Nightfire holstered his rifle and turned to face her. "What you see in me is quite different from what Cybertron sees me as. The killer that needs to be brought to justice…"

"Or one who can change."

"You've never really gotten the point. Change is out of the question for me. Even if you can accept it, others won't."

"You have to prove it to them."

"What's the point? Fact is, they'll only see me for one thing. The outside. Things I've done. They'll never understand the true meaning, my true meaning. My feelings."

"They…I would if you'd just explain it to me. I've been trying to convey that message to you."

"And I've been trying to tell you, 'you won't understand!' " Nightfire shouted. In fact, both of them were shouting now.

"I thought you promised me to try your best. You certainly aren't!"

"So what if I did, it's just words." Nightfire almost regretted saying that.

"So that's it? That's your version of a promise?"

"I had to get you off my back!"

"I absolutely hate you when you act this way!" Syndrea yelled with a sudden burst of anger.

For a long moment, both stared into each other's eyes. Mixed feelings of compassion, pity, hate. Abruptly, Syndrea slapped him and ran out, bumping into Rhinox outside the room.

"Oh! Sorry." She said softly, then left.

"I require some assistance." Rhinox said, looking into the room.

Nightfire rubbed the sore side of his face and stuffed his rifle on a shelf. Rhinox begun to walk back to the control room but turned back.

"By the way, I'll just give you a little piece of advice." He said, "Never pass up an opportunity."

_He's actually right… _Nightfire thought as the big, green Maximal left.

Nightfire made a detour to the room he used on the ship and searched through the files for a certain CD he wanted.

After which, he pulled out an electronic notepad and strapped it to his 'belt', together with the CD.

* * *

_Where am I?_

Cheetor dreamily regained consciousness. Then he remembered. Everyone Optimus had explained to him. About the virus. He'd been hit. What they were going to do to save him.

"Oohhhhh…"

Through his blurred vision, he could make out someone standing over him.

"Relax," It was Nightfire's voice, "try not to think about it."

Everyone was pretending that it would be OK. It was expected, but Cheetor knew better. And he felt like a complete idiot. For a lot of things: being so foolish, disobeying orders, causing trouble for the others. He wanted more than anything else a way out of this.

_But what's done is done, and it was my own fault. _

"Help me…" he half-consciously muttered. "Don't let me go…"

"I won't," Nightfire took his hand, "I promise. Not get some rest. Here, these analgesics should help."

Cheetor felt a jab.

"Not…more…drugs…"

* * *

Nightfire stood staring at Cheetor's unconscious form, lost in his own mind.

_What did I just do? _He shook his head, _I just promised to save someone I condemned to death a few mega-cycles ago. _

He put down the medical syringe in his hand and walked over to look out the window.

_What kind? My version? Or a truthful one?_

"Maybe I'm just trying to make up to Syndrea." He said to no one. His fists automatically clenched. Her words still rung in his head, no matter how many times he tried to forget.

The notepad still hung on his belt. Nightfire pulled it off and begun typing.

Later on, he gave an excuse for leaving and returned to his quarters.

* * *

Nightfire was awakened by the orange streaks of light shinning into his eyes. Blinking, he sat up drowsily and shook his head. He'd fallen asleep on his workstation. The sun was setting and just a glimmer of the bright orange sphere could be seen.

"Finally, you're up." Rhinox said from the other computer.

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"You've been up working from the whole of the last 24 mega-cycles. You needed a little time off."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Anyway, we've almost done." Rhinox pushed a few keys. This instructed a pair of mechanical arms to add the final pieces onto a small laser pistol suspended above the workstation.

"Has Megatron started gloating yet?"

"Of course, claiming to have an anti-virus and such. Then Optimus said to him: 'Dream on! I'm not falling for your act!' and put down the com-link."

"No kidding." Nightfire leaned on the table and stared over his companion's shoulder at the screen. "So, when do we start?"

"Now." Rhinox got up and used a cable to connect the laser to the computer.

"Now?" Nightfire asked, surprised.

"I already worked out the plan with Optimus. Carry out the operation as soon as possible and get it done. The others will be watching the base on all sides to make sure no Predacon gets to the base while its defenses are down.

And I gave Cheetor a little prep talk too. And he went: 'Ultra gear guys, I'll be rooting for ya!' "

The dragon nodded. Rhinox picked up a VR visor and placed it in Nightfire's caws.

"It's your call." The older Maximal said.

"It should be you doing this job!" Nightfire protested.

"I'm not a doctor, but you're a medic." Rhinox placed a hand on his shoulder, "Besides, your aim is much better than mine."

Nightfire gave in, put on the visor and took his place at the computer. Through the VR visor, it was as if Nightfire were holding the laser himself. He zoomed in on the image until the yellow blotches on the bright blue spark could clearly be seen.

"I'm ready." He said, biting down on his lower lip.

"Channeling all power to laser." Rhinox said, reaching over and pulling a lever. "5…4…3…2…"

* * *

"…1…Done. They should be at it now." Optimus muttered, checking the clock on his wrist.

Syndrea leaned her head against a rock, clutching her handgun even more tightly now. She was trying hard to concentrate, but her mind kept on flashing back to the argument with Nightfire earlier on.

Sure, there were problems between them. They argued quite a bit, but this was definitely one of the bad ones. She'd tried to make him feel accepted here, tried to have him correct the worst of his traits.

Tried to tell him that he could change.

She'd partially succeeded. At least he was more receptive to others around him now.

_But he's mostly the same. _Syndrea thought, _Even if he doesn't realize it yet, I do care a whole lot for him. I do wish to understand the pain that he's been hiding and what he's going through. But even through he knows better, he keeps on pushing me away. And I hate him for that. Why? _

A scraping sound caused Syndrea to look left, only to find a small mouse scurrying past.

_Maybe I'm asking too much, going too fast, but I just want to help. It's not in my nature to let people suffer…_

"Heads up!" Optimus' yell interrupted her thoughts.

Bits of rock flew everywhere as pieces of the landscape blew up. Other parts were immediately engulfed by explosions. The Predacons had mounted their attack.

* * *

"They're coming?" Nightfire asked, without looking up from his work.

Rhinox stared out the window.

"Yep, explosions everywhere."

"Typical."

Rhinox took a moment to admire the spectacle in front of him. Cheetor's spark, hovering above his body at the restoration chamber, was being held in a temporary container, which looked something like a transparent, open-ended cylinder. Above that, Nightfire skillfully directed the laser. Rhinox checked the view screen showing a close up on the scene. The yellowish color of the virus was slowly being burned off. It was working! Now it was only a matter of time.

Rhinox sighed in relief.

* * *

"Looks like they've engaged our main force." Airazor commented, shutting off her falcon's binocular vision.

"I would like to assist," Tigatron said, "but we have to hold our positions. I'm sure the others are doing the same."

A small rock rolled off a nearby hill. Two sets of weapons jerked up at the noise. There were some scraping sounds, followed by some light tapping. Several more pebbles were jarred loose. Then, it was silent.

"The spiders?" Airazor asked.

Tigatron nodded.

"Follow me."

The pair cautiously crept up towards the sound of the noise.

_Ready?_ Tigatron mouthed. Airazor nodded.

"Gotcha!" both jumped up and aimed their weapons…only to find one of Tarantulas' mini spider robots.

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Hey Tigatron, look! There's some sort of timer on it."

The numbers were going down. …3…2…1…

"Run!"

It was too late. The force of the mini bomb was more than enough to knock them out cold.

Tarantulas appeared out of the shadows with his eerie laugh.

"Hehehehehe! Worked like a charm. I'm such a genius, at times I even surprise myself. Hehehehehe!"

* * *

"What was that?" Rhinox had noticed a bright flash. It was gone the next instant.

"Coms are down," Nightfire reminded him, "we can't call anyone. But it was probably nothing, the others have got the area covered, after all."

Rhinox wasn't as confident. He reached down and picked up his chain guns.

"I'll go check it out."

"I'm almost done anyway. I'll join you ASAP."

Rhinox descended the elevator and jumped off, carefully checking the surrounding area. Nothing moved, bar the explosions in the distance.

"Hmmm."

He still felt like something was wrong. He continued on to the rear of the ship.

Then…something moved! Behind!

Rhinox spun round. As he did so, he received a shot straight in his back.

* * *

Meanwhile, Optimus Primal's group was still trading fire with the Predacons atop a hill. Someone had thrown a smoke grenade, stirring up clouds of dust and making it incredibly difficult to target.

"Damm, I can barely see a thing." Calico muttered. The vixen crouched down to reload her twin Uzis.

"You'd think it would make it harder for them to target us too." Syndrea muttered.

"They're higher up," Optimus said, "that gives them a slight advantage. But we have to keep fighting."

Even as he said those words, Optimus Primal still felt like something was wrong. But he trusted the rest of his team. They'd handle it. At least, he hoped.

* * *

"Hey, I did it!" Nightfire cried happily, throwing off the visor.

He'd actually done it, achieved what was almost impossible.

"You are really lucky Cheetor." He said, even through he knew Cheetor couldn't currently hear him.

Now all that was left to do was redirect the power, bring the other systems online and return his spark to his body. No problem.

BAM! Nightfire heard the gunshot.

"Rhinox?" It hadn't sounded like the familiar rapid firing of his chain guns.

Nightfire hit the panel.

"Restore original power settings and bring Sentinel online." He ordered the computer.

"Acknowledged." The computer replied, "System will take ten cycles to restore power settings."

"What? Ten cycles? What kind of crappy systems do you guys have?"

Nightfire stopped and listened. Footsteps. Three, maybe four bots. One of them was definitely very big. The dragon didn't need his psychic senses to tell him that it was the Preds.

"Work faster." He muttered.

"Unable to comply." The computer nonchalantly replied.

The Preds were approaching the control room fast. Nightfire reached for his rifle, only to find his holster empty.

Slapping himself, he realized he'd left it in the training room after the argument with Syndrea. He had his sword, but it wouldn't deal with four heavily armed Predacons firing at him. Not all four at once, at least. Additionally, there was too much delicate equipment and not enough room to maneuver.

Which left him no choice but to revert to beast mode and try his fiery breath. As an afterthought, he reached a claw into a compartment and pulled out a pistol that was stored there for emergency use.

Being in his dragon form made him feel a little more confident, but it still didn't change the fact that he was in trouble.

_Here they come…_

He waited only for the footsteps to come round the corner, then let loose a fire blast followed by several pistol shots. Predictably, Waspinator was the one who screamed and blew up. Nightfire flipped the table up, just in time to deflect a purple laser. Megatron obviously hadn't wanted this to fail so much that he'd come to get it done in person.

He recognized the deeper, shotgun-like blasts as Deathwing's gunblade weapon. The third was one of the spiders, judging from the sound, probably Blackarachnia.

Nightfire emptied the weapon while using the table as a shield.

_It's not gonna hold!_

BOOM!

Sure enough, it was blown to pieces. Nightfire stopped firing and climbed to the ceiling, digging his claws in for better grip, and waited. Blackarachnia came in first, pointing her weapon everywhere except up.

_Perfect! _

The dragon pounced, pinning her down with his massive reptilian talons. Megatron fired, driving a hole in one of his wings. Nightfire roared in pain and attempted to use Blackarachnia as a shield.

Unfortunately, her body was too small and Deathwing's aim too precise. Nightfire was shot right in the face. He stumbled back, crashing into the glass door of the elevator. Deathwing followed up with a sword attack and

Nightfire used his tail as a whip to knock it away. But it didn't stop the silent Predacon's attack. Deathwing punched, Nightfire retaliated, and the two were engaged in a furious fist-to-claw fight.

Nightfire was part way trying to clear the stars out of his vision and trying to ignore the fact that Megatron and Blackarachnia were driving bullets into his hide.

_Grrrr….can't take much more of this…_

Deathwing suddenly felt some unseen force grasping around his neck. Nightfire was clenching a fist.

"What?" Megatron and Blackarachnia both gasped and stepped back.

Nightfire thrust a claw out as if he were throwing something. Deathwing was flung across the room into his companions. It didn't end there. He was dragged and slammed into the opposite wall. Blackarachnia took the opportunity to aim and fire her crossbow-like gun. Nightfire flew back into the wall…and lay still.

"What was that?" she asked, still slightly shocked at the sudden burst of power.

"Another of his little secrets." Deathwing muttered, wiping mech-fluid off his injured mouth.

"Ah, yes." Megatron was hunched over another computer console. He soon brought up the container containing Cheetor's spark. "Such an excellent bargaining tool, yes. The life of Optimus Primal's little friend."

"System charge 90 complete." The Maximal computer announced.

"Quickly, we must leave at once." Megatron indicated the elevator.

"Hey BA, help me out here." Deathwing reached over and lifted Nightfire's head.

"Urgh! He's heavy." Blackarachnia grunted.

"Quiet you two!" Megatron ordered. "And hurry up!"

Silently, the three Predacons disappeared into the night.

* * *

"Man! I knew this was a setup!" Rattrap pounded the broken table.

"We certainly don't need you to point that out." Calico said.

"Sorry Optimus," Rhinox said, "I can't believe that I was so careless."

"Forget about it," Optimus said, "we have to focus on the present here." He looked over to the restoration chamber. "How's Tigatron?"

"He'll be OK." Airazor answered, "He took the worst of that bomb blast. But he won't be able to help us anytime soon."

"Judging from the looks of this place," Optimus continue, "Nightfire put up some fight, but…"

"His system is built for speed and stealth, not endurance." Syndrea spoke up, "He hasn't got much armor."

"HELLO!" Rattrap stood up and waved his hands, "What are we all sittin' round here moaning for? Let's just go storm their base or something and get our pals back!"

"Storm their base huh," Calico said, "not a bad idea. Considering they do it to us all the time."

"No. Megatron's got two of our comrades. We can't risk a full scale assault while he's holding hostages." Optimus said grimly.

"So what? We just sit here and wait? Sheesh!" Rattrap sighed.

"We play his game…for now."

The computer hummed.

"A transmission." Rhinox flipped a few switches. "It's the Preds."

"I'll handle it." Optimus stepped up and set the screen on visual.

"Greetings Optimus," came Megatron's boastful voice, "rather nice day isn't it?"

"Get to the point, Megatron."

"Ah yes, well I'm sure you're aware of what I have."

He stepped away from the screen so Optimus could see past him. Nightfire was secured to a metal frame, limbs bound tight. He was surrounded by Terrorsaur, Waspinator and Inferno, who were trying to hold his dragon head down. He didn't look in good shape. Optimus could only clearly make out that his wings looked like they'd been run through a shredder. Something like a blindfold had been pulled over his face, covering his eyes.

He'd apparently been listening to the conversation, because he suddenly jerked up his head, throwing all three Predacons off him.

"Don't listen to him, Optimus!" Nightfire yelled, turning his head towards the screen, "my life isn't worth…"

Inferno clubbed his head with the butt of his gun, knocking him out.

Megatron stepped back in front of the screen.

"But I'm sure that won't be your only concern." Megatron held up the container with the glowing spark inside.

"All right. What do you want?" Optimus grimaced.

"Not much, really. Just for you to come down to our base alone and surrender yourself to me."

"When?" Optimus growled.

* * *

Nightfire's face didn't even move as Shadowflare ran the dagger down his side.

"I see you're no stranger to pain." The panther muttered.

Nightfire didn't answer, but turned his head and spat.

"Fearless as ever," came Megatron's voice, "isn't that right, Phantom?"

With the blindfold on, Nightfire couldn't see anything. But he reached out with his senses and felt Deathwing's presence.

"So you've finally had the guts to tell them the truth Deathwing." He growled.

"It became a necessity." Deathwing said.

"More like a display of how truly pathetic you are."

"WHY YOU…"

"He's trying to aggravate you." Shadowflare said, holding him back, "In my humble opinion."

"Hmmm. But we have here now the one who double crossed us, not once, but twice, and led the Maximal ship straight to us." Megatron kept his calm tone.

"Glad to be of such wonderful service to you Megatron," Nightfire mocked, "and I didn't even charge you for that."

Furious, Megatron drove a fist into Nightfire's face.

"You'll regret that."

"Oh sure, I already have. Come on, what's the worst thing you can do? Kill me? I know what failure of treachery means in our 'ethics'. You might as well get on with it."

"Oh no. Not just yet. Because you'll suffer first."

Nightfire was grabbed, untied, and thrown into a cage. He felt the hard 'clang' as well as the shock as he hit the electrified bars. Now that he had his claws free, Nightfire took the opportunity to reach up and attempt to rip the blindfold off. Immediately, he received a severe electric shock that forced him to let go.

"Don't try," Scorponok informed him, "I linked that directly to your power source. Pull it off and you go offline too."

Nightfire staggered to his feet. There was sufficient room for him to stand on all fours.

"It's still just a cage and a blindfold. You should know from experience that nothing like that's gonna hold me for long."

"Maybe not," Megatron replied, "but this should certainly help. Catch."

Nightfire caught the object.

_No way! It couldn't…_

But it was. The spark container. With Cheetor's spark still in it.

"Be careful with that. Because I certainly wouldn't like to see the look on Optimus' face if you were to lose, his young friend. HAHAHAHAHAHA…"

The other Predacons joined in. Nightfire clenched his claws in rage and waited till all of them had left the prison room. The dragon placed a claw on the spark container.

_I'd better be able to do this._

( Cheetor, ) he called telepathically.

( Huh? What? ) Cheetor voice sounded, blur and confused, ( W…where am I? What's going on? )

( It's a long story, but to make it short, we are seriously screwed. )

* * *

"WHAT? Boss monkey! You can't be serious!"

"Yes Rattrap, I am."

"Oh boy."

"How about that underground passage Nightfire and I used to escape the base previously?" Calico suggested, "They'll probably have it guarded, but I figure I'd be able to sneak past."

"Worth a shot Optimus," Rhinox said, "Since the rest of us are going to have to keep out of range of their scanners. Besides, you'll probably have to deal with a ship full of nine Predacons by yourself."

Optimus nodded.

"I know the place too. I'll go with you." Airazor offered.

"If you know Nightfire like me, he's gonna try some heroic escape of his own. I better come along too." Syndrea added in.

"All right then. The ladies sneak in through the underground passage." Optimus declared. "The rest of you will follow me, but stay out of range of their sensors."

Dinobot snorted.

"Whoa, whoa, wait a cycle here! If the girls are gonna be on some dangerous infiltrate-and-rescue mission, then don't ya' think we should be lettin' the expert accompany them. For safety reasons."

"Shut up Rattrap!" yelled everyone else.

"OH boy…"

* * *

( Whoa, total bummer. ) Cheetor muttered.

( I know. ) Nightfire had to lower his scaly body and lie down. His injuries were making it exhausting just to keep on his feet.

( So then, you've always had these powers? ) Cheetor asked, trying to strike up a conversation.

( Yes. )

( And you think I may have them too. )

( Partially at least. Your strange dreams, plus the fact that you can speak back to me rather easily. Remember previously I told you that you could see in more than just one perception? )

( Uh-huh. )

( Calm your mind, feels the air around you. )

( Okay… )

Into his world of darkness flashed the image to the prison room, the cage, and Nightfire lying down in it. Grasping his spark container in his claws.

( I did it! )

( That's good…urgh… )

( Hey! You're hurt pretty badly. ) Cheetor didn't need his vision to tell him that.

( Pain, ) Nightfire replied, (is also something that's in your mind. Like a river, don't go against it, but flow with it, and it will lead you to your destination. )

( You sure know some deep stuff. What's it mean? )

( That, you'll have to figure out on your own. Oh and don't talk anymore, I think someone's coming. But I'll let you watch. )

Cheetor decided not to ask. He already had a whole bunch of unanswered questions. There was a sudden flash.

Cheetor would've blinked if he could. Next thing, he was looking at some black and white image. Only when it moved did he realize that he was looking down at Nightfire's body. The dragon was scraping something in his claws, being extra careful to keep it hidden.

_What in the name of…? _

The view moved again, showing the door. It opened and Scorponok and Inferno noisily chattering stepped in. Then it hit him. It was almost as if he were looking through Nightfire's eyes. He was seeing and hearing everything Nightfire would've if he didn't have the blindfold on. Right now, the dragon was pretending to be asleep.

"Looks like he's out." Scorponok said, "Good. That'll make it easier to move him."

Nightfire waited till they turned the power off and opened the cage door. Then…

"RRRRRrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaagggggggg!"

With a roar, he brought up the metal shard in his hand, with its end carefully sharpened into a blade, and drove it into his opponent's chest. Inferno tried to fire, but Nightfire used Scorponok's limp body as a shield.

"Argh! You will burn traitor…ugh!" Inferno was abruptly shot in the back.

Behind him, Deathwing chambered his gunblade, the empty casing falling to the floor. For a moment, the two enemies stared at each other.

"It was you," Nightfire accused, "you were the one who want to kill me with that virus."

"It started out that way," Deathwing replied, "but…"

With his foot, he kicked open a section of the floor.

"This passage leads to the network of tunnels beneath the base. Megatron's got all the others guarded, but he doesn't know about this one. So…get going."

"You're actually helping me? I thought you'd jump at the chance to kill me in a weakened state."

"Once maybe. But now, my sense of honor will not allow it. Next time we meet, I will finish you with honor."

"Then I'm glad I don't share your stupid sense of honor!" Nightfire raced forward and punched his nemesis in the face, knocking him to the ground. "Anyway, you'll need to look like you put up some sort of fight." He lifted the dazed Predacon up and knocked him out with a second punch. "Otherwise, old Megs just might get suspicious."

Nightfire stopped only to retrieve his sword, conveniently left on a shelf in the same room, before crawling down the narrow passageway.

_If I live Deathwing, you can guarantee that we'll meet again… _

* * *

"This way." Calico gestured for the others to follow her. "It should be right over…"

The fox didn't notice an auto gun emerging from behind some rocks. That was until Airazor blew it up. All three sighed with relief.

"Whew!"

Immediately, a dozen more guns emerged.

"Uh-oh!"

The trio had to dive for cover as they were bombarded by laser fire.

* * *

"What? What do you mean disappeared?" Megatron yelled angrily into the com-link.

"In my humble opinion, I mean the scanners aren't picking him up at all. Like he just vanished or something." Shadowflare replied over the com-link.

"Argh!" Megatron slammed his fists down on his chair.

"Megatron," Tarantulas' voice came voice a different channel. "intruders down here. And the defenses aren't…yikes!"

The spider jumped away as his screen blew up.

"Not quite how your plan was supposed to work out, wasn't it Megatron?"

Megatron flicked on another screen. It showed Optimus Primal calmly standing outside the base with his arms folded.

"What's the matter Megatron?" Optimus taunted, "I'm right here. Not coming out to greet me?"

"Grrrr…you'll regret that Primal." He pushed some buttons and activated the ship's weapons. Optimus dove for cover as the weapons begun firing.

"Predacons, prepare for attack!" Megatron ordered.

"Looks like Optimus started the party without us." Rhinox panted.

"Ah, the battle awaits." Said Dinobot.

"Yeah, well I hope da boss doesn't get blown to scrap first!" Rattrap added in.

The three continued running, intent on joining their leader in battle.

* * *

"Man, how many of these things are there?" Syndrea wondered. She fired off two more shots, then ducked for cover.

"Airazor, any luck with the coms?" Calico asked as she fired.

"Nothing yet," Airazor begun "…oh wait!"

"…_hiss_…zor…_hiss_…is that…you?"

"Nightfire! Are you alright? Over."

"…have…_hiss_…Cheetor with…_hiss_…getting out anoth…_hiss_…way…Over."

"Where are you? We meet up. Over."

"Negative…_hiss_…tell…_hiss_…else to get out! Over."

"I copy. Over and out." Airazor nodded to the others and they begun to back off, running the way they'd come from.

"Optimus," Airazor said, activating her com-link again.

"…copy…_hiss_…and…out."

Nightfire shut off his com-link and frowned. Was it '_I copy'_ or '_Do you copy'_?

There was no way to tell.

* * *

( I'm sure they're OK. ) Cheetor said.

( Yeah, I hope. ) Nightfire was not as optimistic as he kept running. ( This is another path I know of. It leads somewhere to the lava pits, I think. )

( As long as it's away from here. ) Looking through Nightfire's vision, Cheetor noticed a pair out auto guns emerging from the roof. ( Heads up! Twelve o' clock! )

In a flash, Nightfire whipped out his sword and deflected the blasts back at the guns, blowing them up.

( Thanks. ) He gasped.

( No prob. Hey, we make a great team. )

( Ironic of you to say that, ) Nightfire replied, (considering I've never really been on a team. )

( You can be on mine, anytime! )

BOOM!

An explosion threw Nightfire into a wall. He hit his head with a painfully loud thud.

( This is bad Cheetor. There must be quite a bit of unstable energon down here. That's what was interfering with our communications just now. )

( Ran man! It'll blow up! We've got to get out of here! )

( Agreed. )

The dragon took off running. As he did, he activated his internal computer.

"Diagnostics." He ordered.

"Power levels critical. 30 and falling."

"Divert anything available to shielding."

"Acknowledged."

( Don't worry, ) he urged, (you'll make it. )

( Dragon man! Opening just up ahead! ) Cheetor yelled excitedly, ( All right! You're the reptile! )

The opening drew ever so close now. Nightfire could practically feel the fresh air. The tunnel grew narrower and narrower as he neared the opening.

Then…

Another explosion sent a huge cluster of boulders down upon him. The only thing he could do was spread his wings and shoulders. His limbs strained against the immense weight; he was partially holding up the entire cavern and protecting the spark case held on his belt.

( Don't give up! ) Cheetor urged, (Just a little more. )

Nightfire wasn't listening. A thousand things were racing through his mind.

"Power levels 15. Falling." His computer announced.

_Argh…can't take this…_

( Come on! Don't quit now! )

"Power levels 10 and falling…9…"

_I have to do what's right…it's the only way I'll ever be able to make it up…to everyone... _

( Cheetor, can you promise me something? )

( What? )

( Just do it, please. )

( OK. I promise. )

( Tell the rest that I'm sorry I could never be the Maximal they wanted me to be. And Syndrea, she's got to look in my desk. )

( Nightfire, what are you going to do? ) Cheetor asked, panicked. His view suddenly went black. Nightfire had separated their temporary telepathic link.

( Good bye. ) He whispered.

( No wait! )

Nightfire grasped the spark container with his tail, aimed, then swung, flinging it out through the hole.

( Nnniighhhttffiirrreeee! ) He heard Cheetor's voice. It was fading as his spark container got further and further away.

"…4…3…"

With the last of his strength, the dragon gave a mental push, throwing the spark canister well out of harm's way.

"…2…1…failure."

His legs literally gave way beneath him. The force of the boulders crushing him body was extreme. Still, he barely felt it. Nightfire was in enough pain already.

As far as he could tell, only his head hadn't already been crushed by the huge boulders. Circuits in his neck blew, joints snapped, leaving him almost completely paralyzed. His dragon head flopped down on top of his sword.

"Funny, that you're still here." He said aloud.

He could feel the ground shaking beneath him and the tons of energon deposits below going critical.

It would be one grand explosion.

_It this what death feels like? I'm not afraid or disappointed. In fact, my heart is filled with pride. Pride that I found a cause worth fighting for. _

He could feel the seconds ticking away.

Time seemed to slow till it was almost a standstill.

…3…2…1…

_So, this is it. _

_Syndrea…_

* * *

The explosion was heard by both Predacon and Maximal alike. Being closer to the Predacon base and shaking up the battlefield, it gave Optimus Primal the perfect opportunity to issue a retreat command.

"Let's get out of here people!"

Leaving Megatron and the other Predacons behind screaming angrily, the Maximals withdrew.

"Optimus," came Airazor over the com-link, "you there?"

"I'm here, Airazor."

"You'd better get down to my co-ordinates right now."

"I'll be there." He turned to his group. "Rhinox, I need you to come with me. Rattrap, Dinobot, you two get back to base."

Optimus and Rhinox journeyed till they met up with the girls at the lava pits. Airazor held up something for them to see.

"We detected this and managed to retrieve it."

It was the spark container. With Cheetor's spark well and intact inside.

"Thank Primus." Optimus sighed with relief. Then he stopped. "And Nightfire?"

Calico grimly pointed over a ridge to an area that had clearly been the center of the explosion.

"The last time we picked up his signal, he was somewhere over there."

"You think, he could have gotten out?" Syndrea asked hopefully. She was clutching a wound on her right shoulder from one of the guns.

"Optimus, I'll bring Syndrea and Cheetor's spark back to base." Rhinox offered.

"Yes, that would be good. As for the rest of us, we going to search this area high and low."

* * *

**Five megacycles later… **

All the Maximals, except for Cheetor who was asleep in the medical bay, gathered in the control room. Optimus Primal, Airazor and Calico came up the elevator from the look on their faces, things obviously hadn't gone right.

"Well? Guys?" Rattrap asked, although everyone already knew the answer.

Optimus brought up Nightfire's sword, the Phoenix Blade. It was only slightly blackened, but otherwise intact.

Airazor shook her head sadly.

"No…" Rhinox muttered.

There were similar reactions from the rest of the group.

Optimus walked up to Syndrea and gently patted her on the shoulder.

"I'm sure he did what he knew was right." He offered her Nightfire's sword, "Here, I know he would've wanted you to have this."

Syndrea accepted it. She held it tightly, stared at it for a long moment, then quietly left the room.

This was one part of being a leader that he hated. Optimus nodded to the rest, indicating that they could leave which all of them except Rhinox did.

"And Cheetor?"

"Don't worry Optimus. He's fine. Juts resting in the medical bay."

Rhinox waited until the Maximal commander had left, then leaned heavily on this console.

"Why?" he asked softly.

* * *

Cheetor blinked and opened his eyes. He was back! In his own body!

And Optimus Primal was looking down at him.

"Big bot!" Cheetor jumped and hugged him.

"Whoa! Hey!" Optimus cried, almost loosing his balance.

"Nightfire?" Cheetor asked enthusiastically, "Did he make it?"

Optimus sighed, looked down at the floor and shook his head.

"Oh no…" Cheetor sat back down with his head in his hands, "This is all my fault!"

"Cheetor, it isn't…"

"Syndrea! I have to tell her!" Before Optimus could stop him, Cheetor sprang up and ran down the hallway.

He paused outside her quarters. A soft sobbing could be heard.

"Syndrea? It's me. Nightfire wanted me to tell you something before he…." Cheetor couldn't get the rest of the sentence out.

"He wanted you to look in his desk."

The door opened and Syndrea stepped out.

"Thanks Cheetor," She sniffed, "but you should be getting some rest."

"Cheetor?" Optimus' voice called out.

"Yeah, I have to go." He replied and left briskly down the hallway.

Syndrea waited until he was gone, then ran and opened the door of the room Nightfire used whenever he came back to the base. The desk compartments were mostly empty, but in the top drawer, she found an electronic notepad.

It was addressed to her.

She hurried back to her quarters, leaning Nightfire's sword against her bedside. With trembling hands, she opened the notepad:

* * *

_Syndrea,_

_I wonder when I'll have the guts to let you read this. Things may have changed by then, but just let me say this._

_Hmmm…Where to start?_

_There is really so much I want to say each time I see you. But, each time, I can never seem to get it off my chest. It is guilt? Or pain? Maybe both. _

_Fact is, by distancing myself, I thought I would be protecting you. Why? Because I've lost others close to me before. I never wanted to experience that again. But I realized I could never escape that feeling. _

_Out here, even I can't win every battle alone. _

_To stray a little from the topic, let me tell you a bit about the theft of the golden disc. Megatron hired me to assist in the act. I readily accepted then, but halfway through, I was thinking about what I was doing with my life. I was getting sick of it, killings, battles, sneaking around in the dark, always having to sleep with one eye open. Some things I've done are simply inexcusable. Considering some brilliant strategist like Megatron had gone through all that trouble to get the golden disc, I figured it couldn't be for a good reason. _

_I attempted to sabotage their mission. Twice actually. Once by disabling their escape vehicle while I made my own get away. Even then, the Maximal Police failed to capture them. _

_Second was when I secretly planted a beacon on their ship. It would eventually lead the Maximals, namely you in the Axalon, to them. And in our 'ethics', failure of treachery is a pretty big thing. _

_After that, I ran. I ran and kept on running. Away from everything, my old life, my past…until ironically, I ended up here, in the middle of a clash I wanted to be furthest away from. _

_I know I've got to stop running. I have to make a stand. But in truth, I'm afraid. Of what? My own reflection in the mirror? _

_I thought erasing trace of my past would solve things, but it's only led to even bigger problems. Now that I think about it, if I'm gone, who's gonna fix things? Who's gonna pick up the pieces? _

_All this time, maybe I've been living a lie. Trying to be something I wanted to be, not who I truly am. Trying to deny the truth. And I've certainly done a good job too. _

_Well, it stops here and now. _

_I do realize that by the time you read this, I may already be gone. If so, I can't change that. I may never have your forgiveness, or your trust. _

_I know words alone are not enough, for actions speak louder than words themselves. I hope that I will be able to say that sometime in the future. _

_Even if all should fail, just let me say,_

_I love you, Syndrea. _

_Nightfire._

* * *

"You have proven yourself." Syndrea said to herself, "In ways you never know."

Syndrea sat still for a long while. She simply couldn't stop herself from leaning back and weeping.

Beside her, Nightfire's sword glowed with a soft blue, almost as if it too were crying. For a moment, the large blue crystal embedded on its handle changed and flashed with a fiery, red glow.


	6. Expect the Unexpected

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**Expect the Unexpected**

By nightdragon0

"_Over here!" _

_I was running. Running and firing. Despite my best efforts, my rifle was still jerking in my hands, seriously throwing my aim off. _

"_Fire in the hole!" Someone tossed a grenade. _

The explosion took out a bunch of the guards. I fired, taking out one of the survivors. They retaliated. Someone fell, screaming beside me. Never knew his name.

"_They're gaining on us Phantom!" someone beside me yelled. _

Doesn't he seem familiar?

"_Hey Bladewing!_ _They haven't got us yet!" _

_More firing. Tossing of grenades. Frags, flashbangs, smoke bombs. Too hard to keep track of._

"_Let's fly!" _

"_Copy!" _

_I transformed, becoming a Cybertronian fighter jet. The star filled night sky filled my entire view screen. We soared above the smoke. _

Hey! What's going on? What in the name of Primus…The scene had already changed.

_I was staring at the night sky, flying out in space. Coming in fast. The transmission was blurred, barely audible._

"_S…hiss…Sky…Ly…hiss…come…! …ky…hiss…nx! ….need lift o…now!"_

"_I'm doing my best!" I replied, "But even with my superior talents, it will be difficult under heavy fire!"_

"_We…cover you! Ju…et…here now!" _

_I turned and plunged into an almost vertical descent. Beneath me, the battle raged. The odds weren't exactly in our favor. A small number of the enemies saw me. I almost laughed as their laser blasts failed to penetrate my reinforced armored plating. _

"_Here I come!" _

All of them…what's going on?

_With the most of the enemies' attention diverted, I approached. At the last possible instant, I turned my plunge into a horizontal dash, feet grazing the rocky surface, smashing through the enemy ranks and finally reaching my friends. I threw open my hatch doors._

"_A true work of art, if I do say so. Quickly chaps, on board now!" _

_I turned my massive head, laying cover fire for my comrades. _

* * *

Syndrea awoke with a start, knocking over a couple of chairs in the process. It took a while to catch her breath and shake the dream out of her head. But it never seemed to want to leave.

"Not again…" she gasped.

"Hey Syndrea, you OK in there?" it was Calico's voice.

"I'm all right."

"Can I come in?"

Syndrea stumbled to the door and let the brown vixen in.

"Sorry, but my quarters is right next to yours." Calico smiled, tapping the side of her head, "Plus, I've got fox ears you know."

Syndrea just nodded.

"Hey, just trying to lighten thing up. Anyway, I suppose it's those dreams again. It's been nearly a month."

"Yeah." Syndrea dropped back down on her bunk.

As she did, her foot accidentally knocked the Phoenix Blade, leaned against a wall, over. The female raptor reached for it and placed it on a table.

"Can we talk Syndrea?" Calico asked.

"Guess it couldn't hurt." She gulped.

"I apologize for bringing the topic up, but we're all upset about what happened to Nightfire. Have you seen Cheetor? He doesn't even want to meet eyes with you."

"I suppose that's it. Guess I'm still a little shaken up."

"I can't say that I know exactly how you feel, but I know I've lost friends before. In war, it's practically inevitable."

Syndrea looked up.

"I thought you were the one who said the reason for losing some of your friends was because of him."

"True. But that was when he was different. Now, I'm forgiven him, but I still don't like em'. We were never best friends. And don't you dare tell anybody else I said that!"

"Cross my heart and hope to die." Syndrea grinned.

"Believe me, between that time I was in emergency stasis after the destruction of my ship and my revival here, my sub-consciousness was really acting up. And I wasn't lucky enough to be able to wake up."

"Yeah I know, I'm supposed to get over it."

Calico patted her shoulder.

"It takes time. You take it easy, OK." Then, to change the subject, "By the way, I heard you're a real natural with the sword."

"Oh, Optimus told you too?"

It wasn't exactly a big secret that Syndrea had approached the Maximal commander asking to the taught how to use a sword. As they soon found out, she actually had some hidden talent with it. Syndrea was one of those who seemed to be able to feel where the opponent's next blow was coming form and react accordingly. Especially since she'd surprised everyone managing to disarm Optimus on her second lesson.

"Just let me ask, why? You didn't really strike me as the fighting type."

"Well," Syndrea picked up the Phoenix blade and turned it around in her hands, "I wanted to be more useful to the rest of you guys. Nightfire once told me I had potential. Since I'm holding on to this, I wanted to honor his memory. Beside, why let such a fine weapon go to waste?"

"Now you're talking girl! That's the spirit!" Calico gave her a thumbs-up. "I'd better go now. And you should be getting some rest."

"Thanks." Syndrea waited until the door closed, then placed the Phoenix Blade back on the table.

"But those were definitely no dreams," she said to herself, "they were memories. Clear ones."

Syndrea shot a glance at the Phoenix Blade.

"I wonder what Nightfire did with you?" she asked, expecting no reply, "Did he go so far as to share his thoughts and memories with you? Or are they from your previous owner? Cause I'm sure Nightfire was never any kind of transport carrier."

_Or am I? _That last thought escaped her mind before her exhaustion came in. _Guess I'll never know…_

Unseen to her, the core crystal in the center on the Phoenix Blade was glowing in its strange, fiery red color.

* * *

"Whoa!"

The Maximals ducked to avoid another volley of fire.

"Just another typical afternoon in the life of the Maximals." Rattrap muttered, loading his gun.

"Shut up and shoot vermin." Dinobot growled.

The pair sprang from their hiding places and returned fire to the attacking Predacons.

"Of all places," Calico muttered as she fired her twin Uzis, "they had to pick the top of a waterfall. And my fur is dry clean only."

"Then maybe I should be glad I don't have fur." Syndrea replied.

She was letting her shiny Desert Eagle do the damage for her. Still, they were against four Predacon flyers, conditions not exactly favorable to them.

"Hey Syndrea," Calico pulled her arm, "let's drop some rocks on their heads." She pointed a finger at a rocky outcropping overlooking the battlefield.

"Great idea!"

"Then come on and give me a hand! The boys'll keep em' distracted for us!"

Leaving Dinobot and Rattrap to hold off Waspinator, Inferno, Terrorsaur and Deathwing, the duo made a mad dash for the rocks.

"We'll have to get to the top then blow the top off!" Calico gasped, pulling Syndrea up the steep hillside.

"Easier said then done and…uh-oh! We've got company!"

Deathwing had broken off from the main group. The vulture fired off a couple of blasts, causing both Calico and Syndrea to scramble for cover. Not like there was much anyway.

The Maximals returned fire, but the aerial Predacon easily dodged their attacks.

"Split up!" Syndrea suggested, "He can't follow both of us! And at least one of us will get to the top!"

"All right! Be careful girl!"

Deathwing frowned as the two Maximals split up, running on opposite sides of the hill.

Calico noticed the silent Predacon going after her partner.

"Good luck Syndrea." She whispered. She pulled out a pair of daggers and used them as handholds to grip onto the rocky hillside. Pulling herself up wasn't an easy task, and Calico only hoped she wouldn't have to do it under fire.

BAM! BAM!

Syndrea jumped to avoid the shots, almost losing her footing. The Predacon swooped past her, intending to make another round. Syndrea held on to the wall with one hand and grasped the hilt of the Phoenix Blade with the other.

"OK, time to show you a few new tricks of my own."

She let him fire off a couple of shots from his rifle, then drew the sword and deflected them with one swift motion. Deathwing hadn't been expecting that. He was hit by his own shots, but managed to regain his balance and stay in the air.

Syndrea still had the element to surprise and decided to try a crazy stunt. Pressing both feet flat against the wall, she pushed against it, using it to propel herself forward. Right onto Deathwing's back. Started, he lost his rifle.

"Aarrrgghh! Hey!"  
"Urrgghh! Whoa!"

A desperate struggle ensued between the two combatants. Finally, Syndrea pulled down on one of his wings, causing the vulture to hit the top of the hillside. Throwing the female raptor off him, Deathwing reached for his gunblade.

Syndrea had the same idea, going for her own sword. The Predacon took a swing. Syndrea rolled under his weapon and lashed out with the Phoenix Blade, knocking the gunblade out of his hand.

That annoyed Deathwing much more than it startled him. Even more so when he discovered Calico had her Uzis trained on his back.

"Well fought." He growled, taking off and stopping only to retrieve his weapon.

"Slick moves Syndrea!" Calico commented. "Never knew you could pull em' off!"

"Well neither did I. Come on!"

The pair fired their weapons, blowing up the hilltop and sending tons of rocks down on the area below.

"Wwwoohhhaaaa! Look out!"

Dinobot and Rattrap ran for cover, but the remaining three Predacon flyers weren't so lucky.

Calico and Syndrea waved to their comrades below. Rattrap started yelling something about being crazy and such. Dinobot chose to keep any comments to himself.

"Really Syndrea, that was great." Calico patted her on the back.

"Yeah thanks." The velociraptor put on a smile.

_But was that really me? I wonder? _

She took another glance at the Phoenix Blade before returning it to its sheath.

* * *

**Later that night…**

"You should've seen her today Optimus!"

Syndrea pressed the side of her velociraptor head against the door and listened. Eavesdropping wasn't something she pictured herself doing, especially in a meeting like that, but she just had to hear this.

"If I didn't know better, I'd sear those were a bunch of Nightfire's moves." Calico's voice continued.

"Those two were together. It wouldn't surprise me if Nightfire had managed to show her a few of his tricks." That was Rhinox.

"Possibly. But that doesn't explain the abrupt personality change." Optimus said.

"In my opinion, it's for the better. Even if she is a female." Dinobot's voice.

"That's not it. If it's revenge she wants…"

"I wouldn't call it that Optimus," Calico interrupted, "she just wants to be more useful. Even if she was meant to be one of the non-combat personal, it's a war situation, and we need all the help we can get. Besides, what do you want to do? Tell her off? That'll really hurt her feelings."

"I didn't mean it like that…"

Syndrea pulled away, deciding she'd heard enough.

_Thanks for taking my side Calico. But they're right. It's more than just getting nightmares. It's like…I don't know. One moment I'm myself, the next, I'm like someone or something totally different. By the Matrix, what's happening? Maybe I'm just losing my mind…huh? _

Syndrea snapped up. She'd swear she'd just heard something.

"Maximize!" she commanded.

_(Syndrea, I need your help. Come quickly…) _

There it was again. Syndrea drew her gun, just in case.

"Who's there?" she called out. There was no one in sight.

_(Syndrea, I need your help. Come quickly…) _

This time, it seemed to come from a different direction.

"What…?"

The raptor blinked. Had she just seen someone down the hall?

"Hey wait!"

She ran down the hallway, towards the control room. Barging through the open door, she crashed into someone. Screaming, she pointed her weapon at the figure.

"Cheetor!"

"Syndrea! Oh sorry!"

Cheetor scrambled to his feet and helped her up.

"Cheetor, what were you doing. You really scared me." Syndrea wiped her forehead.

"Me? Wasn't it your voice I heard?"

Both stopped short and stared at each other.

"You heard it too?" they exclaimed simultaneously.

"Whoa! This is too weird."

"Yeah, I know."

Syndrea walked up to the computer and called up a map.

"What are you doing?" Cheetor asked, coming over.

"This may seem weird, but I sorta got some image popping into my head just now. Looked like it was from here." She jabbed a finger on the map.

"OK this is real freaky, but I sorta saw something too. It was here." Cheetor turned the map a little and pointed to a spot just close-by. "This ain't no coincidence."

"Seems that way. Something seems to be calling us. And it seems to need our help."

"But is there anything in that sector?"

"Hmmm…wait, that was where we discovered that odd stone pillar! You know, the one that blew up our scanning equipment."

"Think we should go check it out?"

"Definitely."

"Then come on! I know the quickest way there!" Cheetor grabbed her hand and dragged her onto the elevator.

"Shouldn't we at least tell the others?"

"They'll never believe it. Besides, just a quick check up right? We'll be there and back before they know it! And we can get big cat and Airazor to help us out!"

The elevator hit the ground outside.

"And don't worry! This cat'll be a whole lot more careful now! Beast mode!" Cheetor transformed.

"Hey, wait a second!" Syndrea grabbed his tail, "Just let me say this, I don't blame you for what happened to Nightfire."

Cheetor stopped short.

"Well….I…" he begun.

"And you shouldn't be blaming yourself either." Syndrea transformed and walked up beside him. "We'll all make mistakes sometimes in life. But the greatest thing is that we can learn form them."

"Thanks," Cheetor smiled, "you're the best!"

"Glad I could put your mind at ease. But now…" Syndrea pointed her velociraptor head forward, "we've got a job to do."

"Alright! Make sure you keep up!" Cheetor yelled back as he started running.

"Just watch me!"

_Geez, now Cheetor and I are hearing voices in our minds, _Syndrea thought, _Nightfire, if only I still had you to check this out…_

* * *

"Here's the stuff you wanted Megatron." Shadowflare spoke.

"Although I don't see why." Blackarachnia's voice added in.

It was a fact that most Predacons just couldn't pass up the opportunity to peek into their leader's affairs and Deathwing was no exception. He was pressing his black-colored body against the wall outside and listening.

"Excellent." Megatron grinned.

"Luckily the flyers were distracting those stupid Maximals for us," Shadowflare said, "and were we able to make off with enough of this metal for this project."

"Those things in those pods are essentially protoforms, constructed from the new metallic substance we discovered underground." Blackarachnia said, "Now, they only lack the sparks to bring them to life. And sparks are something you can't just make out of thin air."

"I am indeed aware of that. But I've been conducting a little research that just may help us turn the tide of this war in our favor." Megatron said proudly. Then to his troops, "Well done, both of you are dismissed."

At this point, Blackarachnia noticed Deathwing spying on them outside the door. The soldier snarled and then tapped his wrist, indicating for Blackarachnia to meet him later. The vulture then disappeared into the darkness of the hallways.

The black widow winked, but made sure it didn't look like it for intended for him.

"Always happy to serve you Megatron."

* * *

"Did you get the data?" Deathwing asked.

"Most of it anyway," Blackarachnia smiled, holding up a disk, "it's mainly all the research notes from my tests on that new metal. They're calling it substance 'P'. And there's as much of Megatron's notes as I could obtain on such short notice."

"Does Megatron have this information?"

"Not all. I just gave the old dino what he wanted: the protoform. The rest of the stuff is my own. Especially that little hacking trick I pulled off while he had his back turned." BA showed off a small spider robot, shaped like a circular disc. "Now…"

"Yes. This is what you wanted, right?" Deathwing produced a small box and displayed its contents to her. "Stealing from Scorponok's lab was hardly a challenge."

"Hmmm. Pleasure doing business with you, feather-face."

"From someone as lovely as you, I'll take it as a compliment. I have to go now, Megatron wants me in a couple of cycles."

"Shame. When you're done, how bout you and I take some time off together, eh?" Blackarachnia pulled off a sexy pose.

"You know I would." Deathwing blew a kiss, "Later!"

Blackarachnia waited till he was well out of range, then quickly ran round the corridor and pulled open one of the floor panels. Reverting to beast mode, she crawled to a specific point and waited.

Tarantulas appeared soon after.

"Did you get the data, widow?" he asked hurriedly.

BA produced another disk.

"You know you can always trust to, partner."

_I'd trust you about as far as I could throw you, witch. _Tarantulas thought.

"Well, hurry it up then!"

"Not so fast legs, your part of the bargain first."

"Oh, fine then."

The spider produced a small black box.

_Well, not like I trust you either, you maniac. _BA thought.

Up above, Deathwing had anticipated what was happening below.

_Two-timing spider! _He thought angrily.

* * *

"This is taking longer than we expected." Syndrea muttered.

Having met up with Tigatron, all three were in beast mode, now just a short distance from their destination.

"Guess you're right," Cheetor said, "the sun'll be up soon. If we don't want to get found out, we'd better head back."

"Hmmm. I don't like it, but if this is really important to you, I'll radio the base and tell them that I needed some help with my weather recording equipment and borrowed you two because I didn't want to disturb the rest." Tigatron suggested.

"You'd do that for us?" Cheetor grinned.

"Just this once. Anyway, it's because Syndrea stopped to help fix my equipment that we got off schedule. Wait here for me." Tigatron ran off to find some higher ground.

Cheetor and Syndrea sat down and waited.

"Hey, at least we get to watch the rising sun." Cheetor said.

"Yes, unfortunately though, it won't compensate for the lack of sleep." Syndrea laid her head down and looked up towards the sun, rising behind a hill to the east.

A flicker of movement caught her eye. Someone was waving towards them, though he was silhouetted against the rising sun.

"Look! There's big cat!" Cheetor pointed to the same figure.

"You were calling me?" Tigatron's voice came from behind.

"Huh?" Both jumped in surprise.

"Then who's that?" Cheetor pointed.

The figure seemed to be in beast mode now. It ran on four legs, immediately disappearing from their view.

"Who…"

"What in the blazes?" Syndrea muttered, then looked up. "Airazor! Did you see that guy just now?"

Airazor, having just arrived, was taken aback.

"He just disappeared from my scanners. I thought it was one of you people!"

"OK," Cheetor muttered, "now I'm convinced."

"Something or someone definitely wants us to find him." Syndrea agreed.

"I saw it too," Tigatron said, "whatever it was."

"Excuse me, would you mind explaining what's going on here?" a confused Airazor asked.

"Later! Just stick with us!" Cheetor yelled.

The cats and the velociraptor took off running.

"Hey wait! Oh, never mind!"

* * *

"Well, this is it." Syndrea muttered.

The four Maximals stood at the entrance to the cave.

"This is where we found the pillar all right." Airazor said, "Are we going?"

"I think that I shall stand guard here, at the entrance." Tigatron suggested, "We do not know if this mysterious figure is friend or foe."

"Good thinking, big cat!"

"I'll wait here too." Airazor volunteered, "You two go on."

"Gee, what's with them?" Cheetor whispered as they walked.

"Can't you tell? I think they have a thing for each other." Syndrea grinned, "If you get my meaning. Hehe."

The pathway ahead was dark. Syndrea pulled out the Phoenix Blade and used its glowing green blade to light their way.

"Cool, multi-purpose."

The pair continued on until they reached the pillar.

"Whoa!" Cheetor gasped.

It seemed the same as when Syndrea had previously seen it. Huge with the same strange markings all over it.

"Are we…supposed to see something?" Cheetor wondered.

_(Try hearing something instead. ) _

Both Maximals jumped.

"OK, I definitely heard that." Cheetor muttered.

"But not out loud." Syndrea added in, "Like it was in our minds."

_(Right. But why so surprised Syndrea? You of all people should know it. ) _

_What the…no way! It couldn't be! _That was the first thought that came to her mind.

"Who are you?" Cheetor called out. "And where are ya for that matter?"

_(I'll give you one clue, I'm harder to kill that you think. ) _

"Nightfire?" Syndrea asked, "Is that you?"

_(Hey, don't tell me I've been forgotten already? ) _

Cheetor stared with his mouth open.

"Nightfire! You're alive! I thought…never mind." Syndrea made a point to hold back her tears, "And enough playing around. Just come out."

_(Well, there is a problem with that. You'll have to look down at the Phoenix_ _Blade. ) _

"What about it?" Syndrea brought up the sword and turned it around in her claws.

_(Watch. ) _

The blue crystal in the center changed to a fiery-red color. After which, an image of the Nightfire's dragon head appeared on the crystal.

"His spark! It's in the sword!" Cheetor concluded.

_(Exactly. Although you did spoil my surprise Cheetor. ) _

"Nightfire…" Syndrea begun.

_(Hey, please don't break down in front of the kid, it'll embarrass us both. )_ Syndrea could tell that he'd sent her a private message.

"Tell us how." Syndrea quickly finished.

_(Well, remember that last instant when I got you out of there, Cheetor? )_

"Yeah…" Cheetor hung his head.

_(Forget about it. Then, I really thought I was a goner. But then, I realized I was lying on the Phoenix_ _Blade. It was partially my own will, and possibly the sword's as well, but somehow I managed to transfer my spark into it. Even when my exo-structure was destroyed, my spark survived. Like I told you before, this sword is more than just a weapon, but I never expected it to be the instrument of my survival. ) _

"Boy, will the others be surprised or what." Cheetor brightened up, "Who's cares how? You're alive pal!"

"Yes and….Ahem."

"Oh, you two want to talk." Cheetor got the message, "I'll go back to Tigatron and Airazor."

Syndrea waited until she was sure Cheetor was out of earshot.

_(OK Syndrea, what first? You want to scold me, start crying, tell me how much you missed me or… ) _

"What I want to know is, if you've been in there all this time, why didn't you communicate with us."

_(Should've guessed you'd ask that first. See, I was too energy depleted to do anything for quite a while. Hell, at first I didn't even know where I was. Everything seemed so blurred. I couldn't move, couldn't feel anything. I thought I'd gotten thrown into the pit or something. Trust me, this is not something you'll ever want to go through! ) _

"So, you could hear all my conversations?"

_(Hey! I swear to Primus and all the gods I tried not to listen! Especially that one with Calico a couple of nights ago…seriously, yuck! )_

"Boy, she'll be mad. And why here?"

_(Something about that pillar you see there. Just being close to it gave me the boost I needed to talk to you guys. It seems to amplify my powers, somehow. Like all those illusions, the voices, I put those in your minds. And the way you've been fighting in the past month, I influenced it, but in the slightest bit. It really took a lot out of me. I was praying you'd reach here so I could at least communicate with you. And my faith in you was not misplaced. ) _

"How about all those dreams?"

_(That's kinda my fault. You did have the Phoenix_ _Blade close to you. And I can't control when my dreams start acting up. Sorry they kept getting to you. ) _

"I'll say that I've learnt quite a bit about your life back on Cybertron. I can't say I fully understand what it was like, but even I can see that it wasn't nice. But then, how about the other visions? Were you ever a carrier or a space transport of some sort?"

_(You know, that's a question I've been asking myself since I started getting those dreams. And since I've had plenty of time to ponder in here, I think I may have an answer. ) _

"And that is?"

_(They must've been from my previous life. )_

* * *

"What?" Syndrea yelled.

_(Well, you know how our sparks all go to the Matrix when our time's up right? ) _

"Of course."

_(They had a theory that while most have earned their place; some still have other missions to fulfill. Their sparks are sent out again and reincarnated into new forms, with no memories of their past lives. That could happen anywhere, anytime, regardless of the time passed. They relate that theory to psychics like me, saying we have the powers we do because we've actually been to the Matrix and 'touched' its power. It's never been proven, but I think the explanation fits. And because for a brief moment, I stood at the line between life and death, I must've gotten some of those old memories back. It was like looking at a thousand view screens at once. ) _

"I have to agree. I actually remember some of them pretty well, considering I saw it through your eyes. What was that they called you? Something about Sky?"

_(It was Sky Lynx. ) _

"Yes, I think that's it."

_(And I'm thinking it was way back. As in Autobots and Decepticon from the Great Wars three centuries ago. The 4__th__ Cybertronian War. ) _

"That pretty far. We'll probably have to do some research."

_(Cause I can almost feel it. ) _

"Hey Syndrea!" Cheetor's voice came over the com-link, "We've got trouble! Lousy Preds tryin' to burst into our gathering!"

_(Go. We'll talk later! ) _

"Maximize!" Syndrea wasted no time in transforming, getting out her weapon and rushing for the entrance.

* * *

BAM! BAM! BAM!

"Man, how'd feather-freak find us here?" Cheetor muttered.

"Maybe he just got lucky." Airazor suggested.

The Maximals ducked into the cave entrance as Deathwing fired off a few more shots. Syndrea arrived and joined her companions in returning fire.

"We'll never beat him from the ground." Syndrea said aloud, "And I don't think he'll fall for the same trick twice."

BOOM!

"I should be able to get close enough to knock him out." Airazor yelled over the sound of the bullets, "Just give me some cover fire!"

"We've got it." Syndrea answered.

While the others fired, Airazor took to the sky and charged, firing off her wrist guns. Deathwing made it a point to dodge, but was slightly grazed by shots from the others. Airazor turned and made another round.

The Predacon turned to attack her, unintentionally exposing his back to the rest. Syndrea aimed and fired one shot straight into his back. Stunned, he was barley able to dodge Airazor's missiles afterwards. Seeing the others furiously firing, Deathwing then decided he'd had enough. He drew his gunblade and used it to deflect enough of their shots so he could escape.

"He obviously wasn't expecting us." Tigatron muttered.

"Doesn't seem like a scouting mission." Airazor said, "Cause it seems hard to believe that he'd come all the way into our grounds."

_(Deathwing is no fool, he was definitely seeking out something. )_ Nightfire's telepathic voice remarked.

"Nightfire, hard to believe it's really you." Airazor smiled. "But how…"

_(You guys can welcome me back later. And I'll explain it all too. But we have to get the others. It seems like the Predacons are interested in that pillar behind us. ) _

"But could Megatron know more about it than we do?" Tigatron asked.

"That's the part that worries me." Syndrea replied.

_(But first, I need you to get a small chip of that stone pillar. ) _

"How?" Asked Airazor, "Remember that last time we tried? Our weapons just bounced off it."

_(Just use me…uh the Phoenix_ _Blade. I'm certain. ) _

* * *

Deathwing watched as the four Maximals left. The vulture departed from his hiding place amongst the rocks and flew to a further location to minimize the energon interference.

"Megatron." He tapped his com-link.

"Report." Megatron said from the other end.

"I ran into an unexpected bunch of Maximals. Seems that they've found it too."

"Blast! They are guarding it?"

"No, they just left. But I guarantee that they'll be back."

"Hmmm, perhaps they do not understand its true power yet. We may yet be able to turn this battle in our favor. Hold that position and keep any Maximals away. I'll send Terrorsaur and Inferno to provide back up."

"And the original plan?" Deathwing queried.

"It proceeds as planned. With a few modifications that is."

"Affirmative. Over and out."

"Ah, I could almost say I like this mercenary," With the com-link off, Megatron was talking to himself, "if only he wasn't charging so much."

"Humph. The longer I stick around you, the more I think you're insane." With the com-link off, Deathwing said out loud. "Be glad you're not paying me to ask questions, purple face."

* * *

"I still find it hard to believe." Rhinox was saying.

The Phoenix Blade had been placed on a scanning device in front of him.

"You'll believe it all right," Syndrea assured, "once the tests are done."

"Just a little more and…wow!"

The screen showed a diagram of the sword. It made an arrow pointing to the core crystal.

"There really is a spark in there!"

_(Now do you all believe me? )_ Nightfire asked aloud.

"Sorry, but we just had to be sure." Rhinox said.

"Great, how about the rest?" Cheetor asked.

"They're all out on…"

The com-link suddenly beeped. It was Calico.

"Home base! I need back up! The spiders just popped out of no where and got the jump on me! Then, a bunch of their pals decided to join the party and now I'm takin' heavy fire!"

Loud explosions could be heard over the sound of Calico's rapid firing Uzis.

"Calico," Rhinox answered, "I'll have Optimus and the others rendezvous at your position."

"Tell them to hurry!"

While Rhinox worked with the radio, the others were involved in their own discussions.

"This smells like a set up." Tigatron growled. "And the battle out there is the diversion."

"But we can't abandon Calico!" Airazor said.

_(Seems my suspicions were confirmed. Megatron knows something about that pillar. ) _

"Darn! I knew we should've left the cave unguarded!" Cheetor said. "We've got to go back!"

"Problem is, they've most likely set a trap. And we haven't the slightest clue what they're doing there." Syndrea spoke up, "Unless…"

_(Analyze the sample we got. ) _

Syndrea brought out the small piece of the strange rock and placed it on the scanner. Everyone watched in awe as the screen printed out the results.

"Seems like it radiates a great amount of energy." Syndrea read out, "But it's not energon, or anything else we know of for that matter."

_(That's all I need to know. )_

Everyone glanced towards the Phoenix Blade on the table.

"What do you mean?" Tigatron asked.

_(There's no time to explain it now! But we've got to get there now! Cause we'll be in big trouble if Megatron's planned what I think he has! ) _

"Then what are we waiting around here for?" Cheetor hit the elevator button, "Come on!"

"Hold on!" Rhinox came running back towards them. "I've got to tell Nightfire something very important!"

_(Shoot. But make it quick. ) _

"When I was scanning the sword just now, I made a startling discovery. The central ions within the core of the sword are undergoing a spontaneous reaction in conjunction with the molecular structure…"

"Hey big R! How about in a language that the rest of us can understand?"

"Nightfire, your spark is bonding with the energies of the core crystal."

_(Bonding? As in? ) _

"Your spark, having become reliant on the power emitted by the core crystal, is beginning to fuse with it."

_(Fuse? You don't mean… ) _

"Afraid I do. Once the process is complete, there's no reversing it. You'll be stuck in there…permanently."

_(WHAT! ) _

"Can you do anything?" Syndrea asked.

"For now, a strong ionic charge could break the existing bonds. But we won't be able to do it again without causing damage to his spark. Neither will it prevent the bonds from forming again."

_(Go for it. )_ Nightfire agreed.

Rhinox brought up a device and hooked the Phoenix Blade up to it.

"All right, this may sting a little."

Rhinox flicked the power switch. The sword lit up with a bright light, forcing everyone to turn away or be blinded.

_(GGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! ) _

Everyone instinctively clasped their hands over their ears, even though it was impossible to block out his telepathic voice.

_(STING A LITTLE? DAMMIT! I THOUGH I WAS GOING TO DIE! ) _

"Well, you're a dragon. Act like one." Syndrea said, picking the sword up.

(So, how long will this delay the process? )

"According to my calculations, you're got two mega-cycles before crunch time."

"Just two mega-cycles?" Cheetor yelled, "We're in the middle of a crisis here!"

_(Our priority is to stop the Predacons. )_ Nightfire insisted, _(My well being is secondary. No matter what… I will accept my fate. ) _

"Nightfire…" Syndrea begun.

_(Hey, are you Maximals or what? Get a move on! ) _

"All right." Rhinox decided, "Cheetor, you come with me. We need to give Calico a hand. The rest of you will have to handle the Predacons at the cave. Judging from the number involved in the attack, there can't be too many."

"All right! Let's go!" The others agreed.

"I'll fly on ahead!" Airazor yelled as she took off.

Syndrea and Tigatron ran beneath her.

"Nightfire?" Syndrea gasped between breaths.

_(Yes? ) _

"Now I know you meant everything you said in that note."

"Don't worry, let's keep it between just the two of us."

* * *

"Be careful you fools!" Deathwing growled.

"Ugh!" Terrorsaur grunted, "What's with these things anyway?"

He set down the 'stasis pod' in front of the stone pillar.

"Whatever the Royalty commands, we shall follow!" Inferno declared, bringing in the second pod.

Deathwing knelt down and begun attaching several wires and devices to the stone pillar.

"Let me explain it in such a way that even your simple mind could understand, Terrorsaur. This structure you see before you is no ordinary piece of rock. It's a gathering point for the spirits of the flesh creatures that inhabit this world. A gathering point before they pass on to the afterlife, or whatever comes after death. But Megatron's been conducting a little research and now, we're going to tap into its power…"

"And create a whole bunch of Predacon warriors!"

"I'm amazed, you actually figured that one out for yourself."

"Well, doesn't take a genius to know what stasis pods are for." Terrorsaur pointed. He then bent down and whispered, "Hey, how bout' you and me take care of the ant, program these pods into our very own Predacons and use em' to overthrow Megatron! Whadda say? Equal partners!"

"For one thing my friend, being backstabbed afterwards by a feather-less freak wouldn't exactly earn me a place in Silicon Valhalla." Deathwing replied calmly, "And another thing, even I can't tell what sort of Predacon is going to be created. But it will be wild, savage with strong beast instincts. There."

The vulture stood up, dusting his hands.

"It's done. Just a couple of cycles…"

"Sorry, party's over boys!" Airazor appeared at the cave entrance, hovering in the air.

"Intruders! You will BBUUUURRRNNN!"

"Let's see if you can catch me first!" Airazor fired off a couple of shots, then flew off.

"Get her!" Terror yelled.

He and Inferno flew off after her.

"Hold on!" Deathwing called, running out onto the ledge, "They might be more…"

BOOM! The floor beneath his feet was blown apart, sending him tumbling down the mountainside.

"How right you are." Tigatron growled at the bottom.

Deathwing drew his rifle and fired at the same instant as Tigatron, both transformers shooting the weapons out of each other's hands.

"Humph. I do not need a weapon to deal with you." Deathwing taunted, raising his fists.

"We shall see. Hiyah!" Tigatron punched him in the face.

Meanwhile, Airazor was leading the other flyers on a merry chase around the mountain. She quickly circled back to the cave entrance and stepped in. Using the cave entrance as cover, she managed to hit Inferno, sending the ant plummeting out of the sky. Terrorsaur flew off, probably to reload his weapon.

Airazor then heard a low grow come from behind her. She spun round, aiming his wrist weapons.

"Who's there?"

"Your worst nightmare Maximal. DIE!"

Airazor only caught a glimpse of the cold, blue eyes and the flash of a brown coat before it plowed into her, sending them both rolling down the mountain.

Syndrea, scrambling up the mountain nearby, saw this.

"Airazor!"

_(As I told you! They're creating new Predacons by tapping into the spiritual energies that dwell here, essentially formatting them into sparks. It was that same energy that gave my psychic powers a boost. We have stop it, now! ) _

"But Airazor!"

_(She can take care of herself for now! But we've got to make sure no more new Predacons are coming out! ) _

This new Predacon was a Smilodon, a saber-toothed tiger. Her coat was brown with several whitish patches. The look of fury in her eyes was equaled only the huge pair of white fangs on her jaws.

Airazor aimed her weapon, but the saber-toothed tiger simply bit down on her hand. Hard. The falcon screamed out in pain.

"Airazor!" Tigatron yelled.

Her cry of pain distracted him long enough for Deathwing to smash his head into the rocky mountainside, knocking him off-line.

"Foolish." Deathwing growled in satisfaction.

* * *

"Look! There!" Syndrea made a mad dash.

_(Looks like they haven't hooked up this pod yet. )_ Nightfire said.

"That's a relief." Syndrea panted. "But what now?"

"There's one more! Inside!" Terrorsaur's voice could be heard from outside the cave.

"We're busted!" Syndrea muttered.

_(Syndrea, I've got an idea. Get me out and hook me up to those wires from the stasis pod. ) _

The velociraptor did as she was told.

_(Now, jab me into the pillar! ) _

"Like this?" Syndrea raised the Phoenix blade.

_(Yes! Do it! ) _

She forced the sword into the pillar. Immediately, lights on the pod begun to flash. The Phoenix Blade began to glow.

_(You have to hold them off till this is done! )_

"Me? But…"

_(Syndrea, you may not feel it, but you have a warrior's heart. I've felt it! Even though you can't fight with brute force, use your mind. Please, do this for me! ) _

Syndrea gritted her teeth and pulled out her gun.

"All right."

_(I promise, everything'll work out. ) _

The Terrorsaur and Inferno were already at the entrance to the cave. Syndrea fired, forcing them to back off a little. They returned the shots, giving her very little opportunity to shoot back.

"Grrr! What am I supposed to do now?" she wondered. Glancing up, she noticed a section of the ceiling seemed a little lose. And that the cave sloped downwards in their direction.

"Gottcha!" She fired up, jarring lose a massive amount of rocks and boulders.

"AARRGGGHHH!" the Predacons yelled as the huge stones rolled towards them. The rocks slammed into them, knocking them out of the cave and sending them off the mountain.

Syndrea ran out to take a look, only to be shot in the shoulder, lose her weapon and sent flying to the ground below as well. Dazed, she still managed to see Tigatron and Airazor lying on the ground, unconscious.

"This is over." Deathwing pointed his gunblade at her.

"Muricate, terrorize!" the saber-toothed cat transformed into a brown and white humanoid. The process was similar to the standard cat bots', just with her beast head folding onto her robot form's back instead. With cold blue eyes and a malicious grin on her face, Muricate trained a shotgun on her.

Terrorsaur and Inferno were pulling themselves up too. Tigatron and Airazor were getting up, but they didn't look in good shape either.

_This is bad! _

"Any last words?" Deathwing taunted.

"RRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"

A thunderous roar was followed by several bursts of flame, each one taking the weapons out of the Predacons' hands. All heads glanced up with different reactions.

"ARGH! It's a ghost!" Terrorsaur squawked.

"By the Matrix!" Tigatron gasped.

"Could it be?" Airazor wondered.

Inferno stared with his mouth open.

"Grrrrr." Deathwing growled.

"Who dares attack?" Muricate snarled.

"I never doubted you for a second." Syndrea smiled.

On the ledge above them, looking alive and well, stood Nightfire, the black dragon.

* * *

"They're not answering Megatron." Shadowflare cried over the din of the battle.

"What?" the Predacon commander growled.

"I said that they're not answering."

"It was just a figure of speech you idiot!"

"Well, how was I supposed to know?" The panther protested, lifting his bowgun and firing at the approaching Maximals.

"Those fools had better have gotten the job done." Megatron said to himself. "We'll hold this position for a little longer." He ordered.

Megatron raised his tail weapon and fired, causing Optimus Primal to dive for cover.

"Tell it to them." Shadowflare pointed.

"Ugh! Let's get out of here!" Blackarachnia shouted.

She, Tarantulas and Scorponok turned to flee.

"Wwaaiiittt for Wwwaasp—" BOOM!

"How sad." Shadowflare muttered.

"Fools!" Megatron yelled after his troops, "Get back here and fight!"

"Ah, what the heck! I'm outta here too!" Shadowflare holstered his weapon, grabbed Waspinator's pieces and ran off after the others.

"Gggrrrrraarrgghh!" Megatron was not happy at all. "There'll be another time, Primal!" He yelled as his retreated, waving his fists angrily.

"Woohoo! See ya around mega dork!" Rattrap called after him.

"Calico?" Optimus asked.

"I'm all right." She insisted, pulling herself up.

"But we've got to go help the others." Rhinox said, storing his chain guns, "And we have a little bit of information we'd like to share along the way."

* * *

"Yyyaarrggggghhhh! The dragon's ghost has come back to get his revenge! Let me outta here!" Terrorsaur flew off faster than anyone had ever seen him fly before.

"I told him reading about all those bad luck charms was a bad idea." Deathwing sighed.

"Ha! Ghost or not, he will still burn!" Inferno snatched up his weapon and rose to the sky, menacingly welding his flamethrower.

Nightfire rose to the challenge, meeting Inferno in the air.

"Take this! Hahahahahaha!" Inferno went berserk with his flamethrower, spewing flames everywhere.

Nightfire didn't stray from his chosen path and charged straight into the flames.

"Stop firing you idiot!" Deathwing yelled, "He's absorbing your flames!"

And he was. Gathering the flames and forming them into a glowing ball of fire. Nightfire swallowed it and immediately fired it off, slamming into Inferno and charring him till he was black. The deep-fried ant him the floor with a thud.

"Rrowww! Now try me!" Muricate fired.

Nightfire dodged again and again until her shotgun clicked empty. He took advantage of his opponent's second of hesitation and lunged. Muricate lashed out with the claws mounted on her wrists. The dragon nimbly used her shoulders as a springboard to somersault over her.

"Huh? What?"

The dragon was just as suddenly upon her, sinking his fangs into her shoulder. Roaring with pain, Muricate rose the shotgun and attempted to use it as a club. Nightfire reacted quickly, catching her hand and driving it back, thrusting the butt of the gun into her chest. He immediately followed by pulling it up, striking her squarely on the bottom jaw.

Deathwing, meanwhile, was aiming his gunblade.

"Look out!" Syndrea shouted.

Nightfire shoved Muricate forward, using her body to take the shot. With the female Predacon off-line, Nightfire transformed and turned his attention to Deathwing.

The black dragon drew the Phoenix Blade and taunted his opponent with a 'come on!' gesture with his claws.

"Giving me the silent treatment won't help save you!"

The two met each other's swords and were soon engaged in a furious duel. It was difficult to see who had the upper hand and the other Maximals could only stand and watch.

Parry, slash, parry, swipe…it seemed to go that way for a while. Nightfire leapt over a low attack and kicked his enemy in the face. As Deathwing stumbled back, Nightfire rushed forward to attack. Deathwing blocked then twisted his body and thrust out with his sword.

He was so intent on fulfilling that intention that he failed to notice Nightfire's tail until it connected with his head. Nightfire lashed out again and again with his tail, forcing Deathwing to guard repeatedly.

Nightfire suddenly attacked with his sword, locking it with his opponents and turning his wrists, twisting Deathwing's hand at an odd angle and forcing the gunblade out of his grasp. The dragon finished off with a forceful punch into Deathwing's chest, sending him stumbling backwards into the hillside.

Nightfire had a satisfied smirk on his face as he holstered his sword beneath his left wing.

"So, our battle continues…" Deathwing managed to grab Inferno's and Muricate's unconscious forms before flying retreating, flying off into the distance.

"Hey, Nightfire!" Syndrea waved.

Nightfire took a step in their direction, tripped on his own tail, and ended up flat on the floor.

"Guess being stuck inside that sword for a month really took its toll on you." Syndrea offered a helping hand.

The dragon snarled.

"Hey, it was just a joke! Don't take it too seriously."

Nightfire shook his head and growled again. With a claw, his tapped his throat.

"Is something wrong? Why don't you tell us?"

Nightfire shook his head again. This time, he made a cutting motion with one hand while tapping his throat with the other.

"I don't think he can answer." Tigatron said, coming over with Airazor. "He seems to imply something about a fault with his vocal cords."

The dragon gave an affirmative growl.

_(Considering the Preds put this body together from scratch, I'm not surprised that there are a few defects in it. )_ He told them telepathically.

"This body?" Tigatron asked.

"He transferred his spark into one of the 'protoforms' the Preds had created." Syndrea explained. "Talk about turning their own tools against them."

"At least he can still talk to us." Airazor commented.

_(I can't do this consistently, )_ Nightfire said, referring to his telepathic voice, _(It… )_

He stumbled forward. The others caught him in time to prevent him from falling.

"It must drain him too much." Syndrea suggested, "Especially his current state. But he should recover in time."

The dragon gave a thumbs-up.

"Hey, looks who's here." Airazor waved.

The rest of the Maximal fleet was approaching.

* * *

"And basically, that's it." Syndrea explained the whole thing on her friend's behalf. On his request, they'd left out a few minor details: the part about the dreams and his 'previous life'. Those were best kept secret until later.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Rattrap said, "You expect us to believe this guy's some kinda psycho or sumthin'?"

Growling, Nightfire used his telekinetic ability to lift the rat up into the air and tuned him upside down.

"I don't think he appreciated that comment Rattrap." Optimus laughed.

"Ok! Ok! I'm convinced! Just put me down!"

Nightfire made it a point to drop him on his head.

Dinobot let a faint smirk creep across his face.

"Anyway, we're all glad you're alive Nightfire." Optimus offered his hand, "Welcome back."

Nightfire stared at his hand for a moment, then turned away.

"What's wrong?"

Nightfire tried to say something, but all that came out was a series of growls and barks.

"Try this." Rhinox tossed him a palm-sized notepad.

The dragon typed out something then showed it to Optimus.

" 'Are you sure you want me back?' " Optimus read, "Why wouldn't we? I can tell from your recent actions. You've done more than just earned a place here and earned our trust. You've won my respect too. Believe me, you have a place here."

"As they say, action speak louder than words." Calico said.

Nightfire stared thoughtfully at the ceiling for a while, then typed out another response. This one, he gave to Syndrea to read out.

" 'Even though I'll always be an evil, malicious, deceiving, backstabbing Predacon Assassin at heart,' " she read out loud, " 'I'm on your side of the war.' "

_(After all, )_ he sent the message to everyone, _( The best achievements are worth repeating. )_

Nightfire gave a claws-up and nodded. The dragon finally excepted Optimus Primal's handshake.

"And now that we've blasted the cavern entrance shut, I doubt the Preds'll try to use it again." Rhinox said, "But as for his new body, well, Megatron worked around with that new metal he found and configured it so that it was exactly like the same material our Protoforms are made off."

"But won't he try to make more?" Cheetor asked.

"Doubtful, considering the way this one turned out." Optimus said, "Although we do have to watch out for that new Predacon, she'll be rather unpredictable."

"I'm more interested in that metal Megatron discovered," Rhinox said, "It could have some hidden properties that could come in handy. And I want to see if it has any effect on Nightfire."

"Sounds like you're getting very important," Calico teased, "no fair!"

Nightfire had turned away and was pretending not to hear the last comment.

"You're blushing." Syndrea told him.

The dragon backed off, shaking his head.

"Come on!" Syndrea gave his tail a yank, causing him to look up and reveal his highly controlled, embarrassed smile.

"Has it ever occurred to you how girls can practically turn guys into zombies?" Rattrap joked.

The rodent was immediately pelted with various bits of junk thrown by the other Maximals.

* * *

"So, although the Maximals now have their dragon back," Megatron was saying, "but we are joined by your delightful acquaintance, Muricate."

"Pleasure to be serving you, mighty Megatron." The female Predacon bowed. Some soft snickering could be heard from the other Predacons gathered in the room.

_Wonderful, add this one to the list of troops who'd want to replace me as leader…maybe this was not such a brilliant idea after all. _

Elsewhere in the base, Deathwing was busy polishing his gunblade. He stopped to glare at his reflection on its shiny surface.

"This time, we'll play the game my way." he declared softly. "Let us see how the future plays itself out. Seek and thou shalt find…"

* * *

**One week later…**

"Nightfire, if you want to come down here, can you not do it in the middle of the night?" Syndrea moaned, stepping into the room, clicking her velociraptor killer claws on the metal flooring. It was a smaller computer room used when the main control room was occupied.

The dragon growled out what was meant to be an apology.

"Rhinox did tell you right? You vocal cords are really messed up and he couldn't do a thing without being sure that he wouldn't make it worse. If it was possible, that is."

Nightfire had pre-prepared a message on his notepad. 'And I'm the only one who could possibly fix it. Ironic isn't it?'

"Guess so. And what is it you're looking for anyway?"

Even in beast mode, his claws flew across the keyboard as quickly as Rhinox's fingers. Nightfire snapped his claws and brought up a screen.

Syndrea immediately realized what he was doing. Searching through whatever records the ship was carrying for information on the Autobot, Sky Lynx. Even though they were very limited, with the main files stored in the Great Archives of Cybertron, there was still a chance. And apparently, he'd found what he was looking for.

Syndrea bent down to read the entry. It was dated at the year 2006 AD…the end of the fourth Cybertronian Wars.

There had been an Autobot commander known as Sky Lynx. He had been a larger, carrier type fighter, with a space shuttle as one mode and a dinosaur/bird hybrid as his other. Such types were practically extinct in current times, with Cybertron having gone through many changes in the years.

The entry described him as being fearless, daring and constantly brimming with energy. Despite being able to lead with great skill, he often butted heads with others because of his ego and self esteem. The entry continued on to list the warrior's battle achievements, but Syndrea decided she'd seen enough.

"Hmmm, you must've been quite something if you could get those comments. This must've been entered right after the start of the new Golden Age of Cybertron, after the incident involving Vector Sigma and the Plasma Energy Chamber. That was when they were making records of all the heroes that fought in the war to be kept for all eternity."

Nightfire was silent for quite a while.

"Then again, all commanders generally want to say good things about their troops."

He then snatched up his notepad and begun to type, something he'd become very adapted to during the past week.

'I definitely can't deny it now. This was me all right, somewhere, somehow, deep within my spark, I can feel it. Heck, I was actually pretty much like this back on Cybertron.'

"You've got the better few of those qualities now." Syndrea placed a hand on his shoulder.

Nightfire took up the notepad and added in a few more things.

'It's strange. How I have the spark of an Autobot warrior, the heart of a Predacon Assassin and the soul of a dragon. Yet, you have my love.'

The moment she'd read the last part, he pulled something from under his wing and placed it in her hands.

"I…what's this?" Syndrea struggled to find words. The object seemed like an elongated cylinder about the size of her palm, but small enough so her hand could fit around it. One end was topped with a crystal.

Putting his claws over hers, he brought her fingers onto a button at the side and made her push it. Immediately, a blue energon blade emerged from the end with the crystal.

"A retractable energon sword!" the raptor gasped.

_(Been working on it for the whole week._ _Consider it as a token of my gratitude for everything you've given me. And… )_ he brought his dragon head closer, _(you wouldn't mind me kissing you in beast mode, would you? ) _

"Come on! After I saw you hunt and eat three deer for lunch…"

Nightfire hadn't really meant it to be a question.

And so, the final scene was of a black dragon kissing a velociraptor.


	7. Blast to the Past

_Author's Note: As I said, this fic is a G1/BW crossover. Sorry, I'm not going to go into the detail describing the G1 characters, but there are plenty of web sites out there that can provide more than adequate information. _

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**Blast to the Past**

By nightdragon0

There were numerous advantages and disadvantages to my current condition.

On one side, my telepathic powers were stronger than ever. I could use them freely, without fear of the others finding out, because the truth was out.

Then again, my physical condition had taken a turn for the worst. I exhausted myself more easily and I'd lost the use of my voice. Not that those couldn't be overcome, but...

"Nightfire, stop! You're gonna overload the sensors!" Rhinox's yell snapped me out of my musings.

BOOM!

Too late. As before, the old geezer had been trying to determine the extent of my powers. And once again, I'd blown his control panel.

I shrugged a 'sorry' gesture.

"Oh, nevermind. I guess you've had enough for now."

_Finally!_ I sighed.

I waved as I walked towards the control room, reverting to beast mode along the way. A faint beeping alerted me to one of the monitors, which showed that the scanners had picked up a Predacon signature.

I double checked its coordinates and found it to be a small cave at a sector just at the edge of our territory. I was reaching for the com-link when I suddenly stopped, grinning.

One Predacon signature. Plus, an area I knew pretty well. Everyone else was out and Rhinox would be busy with his data for a while. Basically, that equaled a chance to have a little fun.

I know I promised to obey orders, most of the time that is.

_But most still doesn't mean all! _

I quickly flicked the screen off and headed for the elevator. When who should just happen to ascend but Rattrap.

"Hey lover boy, what's the big hurry?" he teased.

I growled and gave him an annoyed frown.

"Oh yeah, Valentines Day! And you're late! Hey, hope ya got some nice rose for your GIRLFRIEND! Hehehe!" he continued, waving a freshly picked rose in front of my nose. "But tell yer what, I'm gonna be a nice guy and let you use this one, OK?"

I took the rose from him, then grabbed Rattrap by the collar and tossed him out of the elevator.

"Ow...just goes to show how much I'm appreciated around here."

Fortunately, I had five fingers on my claw. Snickering inwardly, I made it a point to stick the 'magic finger' at him while I descended. And made sure I ran off immediately after that, so I didn't have to hear anything he had to say.

* * *

As expected, a single Predacon was standing at the entrance to the cave. Shadowflare, the annoying panther who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

I was readying my weapon when a tan and brown motion caught my eye. In a flash, I raced over to the tall grass where I'd seen it and tackled the figure, grabbing firmly and covering her mouth, even though I knew whom it was.

"Mmmrrghhg! Mmmerrggh!"

(Hey Syndrea, it's me! ) I called out telepathically.

The female velociraptor stopped struggling at once.

"Nightfire! Don't do that!" she whispered angrily, "You nearly scared me to death!"

(If I were an enemy, you'd probably be dead anyway. You're brown remember, so sneaking through green grass isn't particularly inconspicuous. )

"Sorry I...huh this for me?" she noticed the rose I'd absent-mindedly stuck in my mouth.

That made me practically look like the perfect lover except that I'd actually meant to swallow the darn thing before this whole mess even got underway.

"That's very nice of you..."

(Erm...yeah. Tell you what, let's get this over and done with first. )

"All right."

I looked up to see Tarantulas and Waspinator arriving on the scene.

_Damn! That'll complicate things. _

There was a whispered exchange of information, and then Tarantulas entered the cave by himself, leaving the other two on guard. I sent Syndrea a set of instructions and gave her time to move into position.

Screwing a silencer onto my M4A1 assault rifle, I shot a small rock above so it rolled down to the ground and landed with a thud. While Shadowflare ran to investigate, I rolled a grenade up to Waspinator. This grenade was a little experiment of ours, designed to look like a fruit.

"Errmmm? Whatz zhis?" The wasp wondered, picking it up to take a closer look.

_Perfect! _

KA-BAM!

"Wwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Hey, what's going on?!" Shadowflare came running back. "Let's see: trees--normal, rocks--normal, Waspinator in pieces--normal, cave--normal and...hey what the?!"

That was Syndrea's cue.

"Freeze!" she yelled, jumping out behind the panther and training her Desert Eagle against the back of his head.

"Ugh..." The Predacon raised his arms in surrender.

I had just left my hiding place and was walking up to the pair when Tarantulas abruptly emerged form the cave. There was a moment of confusion, in which everyone just stared, unsure of what to do.

Then, everyone started firing, punching and yelling at once.

"Take this!"

"Ow! Tarantulas that's me!"

"Get away from me!" Syndrea shoved Shadowflare forward.

"Rrraagghhhh!" I charged and plowed through the group.

I hadn't noticed the cavern was rather steeply sloping downwards and I found myself rolling head over heels. Luckily, it wasn't very long, but something in the wall I'd hit caused an energon surge, forcing me to revert to my beast form.

Either way, I didn't have time to waste as shots were already approaching. I drew my energon blade from its hiding place beneath my wing and deflected them. As I wasn't properly balanced, I stumbled and jabbed my sword into an odd looking pattern on the wall.

Apparently, it had hit something because the wall suddenly begun to glow.

In a blinding white light, I felt myself being thrown backwards. I didn't have time to do anything but cry out in surprise.

* * *

"What do you think it is?"

"I'm really not sure."

Voices. My head. My vision was still blurred.

"Don't ask me, but I think it looks like a dragon."

"You mean that old earth myth?"

"It seems to be breathing too."

I groaned, opening one eye. I was staring up into some bright white light.

"Looks like it's waking up."

A face suddenly obscured my vision. Pure instinct kicked in and I roared, knocked the figure away and sprang to my feet.

Even though my eyes blurred from the lights, I could tell that I was one the floor of a huge orange room.

But something had seemed wrong about that face. It had been...a human?

"Spike!"

"I'm all right!"

"Hurry! Shoot it!"

_Wait! _I wanted to yell, my mind still being at two places at once. That was when I realized that all that came out was an unrecognizable growl.

The next instant, I found my face hitting the floor. My world faded to darkness.

* * *

The next time I came too, I was in a much darker room. And judging from the stiff aches all over my body, I was also chained down to the table.

_Great! What a wonderful way to make an impression in an unknown environment, Nightfire._

I felt at least two shackles on each of my arms, legs and my tail. There was another at my waist and others to immobilize my wings. Finally one that held my jaws closed and also prevented my head from moving. Being on my back with my head tilted to the left, I could see why my body was extremely sore.

Tugging at the restrains accomplished nothing other than giving me even more aches.

There was the electronic whiz of a door opening. I froze and strained my vision as far as I could. The light footsteps were soft and slowly at first, but I finally caught sight of him.

A young human boy.

"Wow..." both curiously and cautiously, he approached.

I wasn't a very good judge of dimensions, especially at this angle, but I guessed he came up to around my waist level in dragon mode.

I let the boy run his hand along the smooth section of my forehead. Not like I had much of a choice anyway.

"Poor guy. I'm sure you didn't mean to do that just now." he said, "I guess you were scared too, huh?"

_At least someone's polite around here. Even if it's just a kid. _

"Daniel, you know you shouldn't be here." An older human who could only be his father entered. I thought I recognized this one. He was the one I had accidentally attacked.

_Maybe I could try telepathic communication. _

(Hey...) I called out.

I saw both humans practically jump.

"Who..."

(It's me. ) I called again, (The dragon here. )

The adult walked over to my head.

"You're telepathic?"

(Yes. And I'm sorry for what happened just now. You people really startled me. )

He released the restrain on my neck, providing me with the great relief of moving it.

"Hope that's a little better." he smiled, "The Autobots were kinda worried about that little stunt."

(Autobots? ) I gasped, (Is this home...I mean Cybertron then? )

"Yeah, how..."

(When? What year, I mean. )

"It's 2007 AD."

(Oh boy... )

"Something wrong there?" he asked.

(That means that I'm some three centuries back in time...)

* * *

(Spike, do you have to keep these shackles on me? It's humiliating being treated like some wild animal. )

"Sorry Nightfire, but they don't want me to release you until you've convinced them that you're a Cybertronian yourself."

(Oh, that's just Prime. )

"Huh?"

(Nothing. Never mind. )

I was following the human, Spike and his son Daniel through the winding maze of corridors. They kept up mouth and upper body restrained, but at least they were letting me walk for myself.

Must've been a pretty quite day as the vast corridors were almost devoid of any activities whatsoever. They were gigantic to the two humans and myself, at least.

Technology had progressed pretty rapidly in my time and the Maximals/ Predacons had downsized from our Autobot/ Decepticon origins. I wasn't much into this sort of technical stuff, but I think it was something about conserving resources, which made sense to me.

The design of the area did seem rather familiar. I guessed that it was Iacon, on of the major Autobot cities on Cybertron at that time.

_At __**this**__ time._ I corrected myself.

I was also trying to come up with a partially 'believable' story to tell them. I figured that they wouldn't exactly like to hear that I was Decepticon descendant, and not every detail of the Best Wars could be told.

I wasn't much of a historian either, but I guessed that around this year, the Autobot leader would be Rodimus Prime.

Upon entering the next room, I found myself staring up at the bot in person. The shackle on my mouth was practically keeping my jaws from dropping.

"So, this is our time traveler, huh?"

* * *

So, I told my story.

Fortunately, he decided to get the shackles off me and let me sit at a table obviously designed for a human. I told them about my time and this 'little' war I was in (with several minor omissions of course). I showed off my transformation and explained my physical condition.

I actually felt bad lying that I was an Autobot descendant and saying that I didn't understand where my telepathic powers came from.

I was so engrossed in 'talking' that I forgot one important fact abut my powers; they drained my energon reserves rather quickly.

"You all right?" Rodimus asked after I nearly collapsed on the table.

(Yeah, talking to you guys like this drains me rather quickly. Need energon. )

"I'm sure we can spare that much." Then he added in, "And I think I've got someone who can solve your vocal problems, if you'd like."

(Really? That would very much appreciated, sir. )

At that instant, a red-colored scientist-type bot barged into the room.

"Rodimus! I believe I'd discovered something extremely fascinating about the creature!" he cried excitedly.

"Erm... Perceptor..." Rodimus begun.

"I do believe that it's some highly advanced blend of organics and technology."

"Perceptor..."

"What's more, it seems to have its origins from Cybertron itself!"

"Preceptor..." Rodimus grabbed the scientist's shoulder and pointed in my direction.

"Oh..."

(Thank you for the kind evaluation. ) I growled sarcastically.

* * *

Apparently, I'd become the center of attraction as several other Autobots joined us.

The spotlight certainly wasn't my forte, but at least I didn't have to repeat the entire story all over again.

I just lay on the 'servicing platform' and let the scientist work on me. They'd offered to put me off-line while they worked, but I'd declined, saying that pain was one of my personal challenges. I really didn't want to tell them they I wanted to be sure I was conscious and could watch what they were doing with me.

Not that I didn't trust them but...OK, I admit I was just uneasy around all these Autobots.

Anyway, the Autobot commander told his side of the story.

Apparently, their far range scouts had detected an anomaly around the Quadropus Sector and had gone to investigate. Their ships had arrived just in time to witness an explosion on one of the uninhabited planets.

"Once we got there, all we found you, laying amongst the remains of what appeared to be a Quintesson Base." Rodimus finished.

"Hope you paid attention when they thought ya all bout' the Quins." Growled the old soldier, Kup. He was the one who'd shot me earlier on, but thankfully he'd had the good sense to set his weapon to stun first.

(Erm...they're our creators and er...they weren't very friendly and...erm...that's all I paid attention too. ) I answered meekly.

"Humph. 300 years and kids stay the same as always. Never listening to your elders..."

"Me Grimlock always listen to Kup!" A metallic T-Rex butted in.

"Argh, Grimlock! Would you get your snout outta my face!"

"Haha, just ignore those two." A jade-green colored bot, Kirath, stepped forward.

He seemed like an older soldier who'd seen his fair share of battles and as I would later learn, nicknamed the 'legendary general' by his peers for his exceptional exploits that had gotten him his rank. His alternate mode was that of a jet plane that reassembled my own former mode.

"But back on the subject of the Quins. We also do know that they tend to mess around with a whole lot of things. "Time for one."

(So, you mean...)

"Yeah, it just might be a coincidence, but it's probably their mess. And they probably have a way to get you back to your own time too."

"We picked up their ships lingering around the area and dispatched an attack squad," Rodimus continued, "but I wonder..."

He looked over to his comrades.

"Kup, Kirath, how bout doing a more detailed search of that planet?"

"We already scanned that whole planet and came up with nothing." Kirath answered.

"That's because we were looking for the Quins. What I want to do is see if we can find anything to help our lost friend here."

"Sorry to interrupt, but I think I'm done." Perceptor addressed me, "Try your voice now."

I moved to a sitting position.

"I...I...Wow, it really worked." I gasped, hearing the sound of my own voice for the first time in quite a while.

"There was a decent bit of human anatomy used in his design." The scientist noted, "Quite fascinating, really."

"Must've been for you at least." I muttered. "Anyway people, if it's something that might get me home, I'm coming too."

Rodimus nodded.

"The five of us then. But strictly search and recon. Any signs of hostility and we pull out immediately. Preceptor stays here in case the attack team calls back."

"Better be careful guys." Spike added in.

_Now, why does this sound familiar? _I asked myself.

"Oh, and Preceptor, you took a scan of Nightfire's structure didn't you?"

"Yes, it's right there on the computer." Preceptor indicated.

Rodimus walked up to it and hit the delete button.

"We wouldn't have to work towards the future if we got too many spoilers from it, now would we?" He asked, smiling.

Then, I realized why he was chosen as the Autobot leader.

* * *

"This is the hangar?" I asked as we stepped into the building.

"It's one of a primarily used ones." Kirath answered.

I broke into a run, trying to keep pace with the much larger Autobots. I stepped through the door and stared up and the white space shuttle docked there.

"And here's our ride." Rodimus said, "Sky Lynx, you ready?"

_Sky Lynx?! _My heart jumped. _Wait a sec, so this guy... _

The space shuttle transformed into a huge robot resembling a winged, four-legged dinosaur.

"Always Rodimus. What's our destination?"

Syndrea and I suspected the main source of my telepathic powers was that my spark had actually touched the matrix and left. Or to put it another way, I'd lived a previous life.

My recent, near death encounter seemed to have triggered more of these visions of myself fighting alongside Autobots.

And Sky Lynx was what they called me.

_This guy...he's me. _I shuddered.

* * *

It was a pretty long trip by my standards.

I left the Autobots to their own discussion as I wandered around the cockpit by myself. This bot was a transport, designed to carry troops within his hull. It never failed to amaze my about the size differences between our generations. But I guess with our downsizing and all, his kind were no longer energy efficient. Then I suppose, they just faded away into history.

Sad, really.

Still, Cybertron in my time didn't really fight too many battles, mostly those with terrorists like what I'd been before.

"Hey kid, would you mind those claws of yours? I recently got a new paint job." the control panel in front of me blinked. Sky Lynx was talking to me.

I realized I'd been absently mindedly running my dragon claws across the control panel. And those claws could easily disembowel a soldier with class 1 (extremely thick) armor. OK, maybe that was exaggerating, but you get the point.

"Sorry." I muttered. Back when I was a terrorist, I'd made it a habit to get my hands on whatever electronic equipment I could find and see what I could make out of it. "The least old high and mighty can do is address me by my name."

I hadn't intended for him to hear the last part, however he did so anyway.

"Is that so, Nightfire?"

Boy, from the tone of his voice, this fellow needed a major ego check. It was weird engaging in a conversation with somebody who in some twisted way was actually myself, but that seemed like a challenge nevertheless.

And I never back down from a challenge.

"Watch your tongue big guy." I growled. "Take out our size and generation disparities, and I'll bet I can do anything better than you!"

"Is that a challenge, my friend?"

"Bet your wings on it pal!"

"All right. See that tiny, blinking red light behind you?"

I turned around, spotting the previously mentioned light all the way on the other side of the cockpit. A long distance for me.

"Hit it." he said, "One shot, bullet weapons only. It's got no essential function, but I highly doubt you'll even get close."

"Ha!" I laughed, "Is that all?"

I turned my back towards it, whipped out my M4 and neatly shot it out with the rifle over my shoulder.

"Hmmm...not bad." Sky Lynx was slightly taken aback, but was determined not to show it.

"My turn." I grinned. Normally, I'd challenge someone to race me through an asteroid field and come out without getting a dent. However, I had to come up with something a little more creative in this situation.

"Vertical, side barrel double roll. One motion." I challenged. That basically meant he had to point the shuttle's nose 90 degrees upwards and roll sideways twice, with nose and tail trading places. And he had to do it with only a single burst from his jets.

"Watch and learn amateur!"

I grabbed a railing and braced myself, smirking. Sky Lynx did execute the move perfectly, throwing the other Autobots within him to various places all over the deck.

"Ow!" Rodimus yelled. "Sky Lynx, this isn't the time for games you know!"

"Ugh-oh...well...I...erm..." The larger Autobot staggered.

That was when I burst out in spasms of laughter.

"What?! Hey! You tricked me!" Sky Lynx yelled angrily.

"Given your state of mind at that moment," I sniggered, "that wasn't too difficult."

"Oh look. They're bonding already." Kirath laughed as he got up.

"No way!"

"Incomprehensible!"

"Well, if you kids are done having fun, then take a look at this." Kup called everyone over and pointed to something on the screen. "Seems like a NASA shuttle."

"But what's it doing all the way out here?" Kirath wondered. "This is rather beyond the limits of mapped out territory."

Just then, the com-link crackled.

"..._hiss..._n Autobot shuttle! SOS..._hiss..._eed..._hiss.._" the rest of the transmission was lost in a burst of static.

"NASA shuttle, respond!" Rodimus grabbed the com-link, but go no further response.

"The shuttle looks like it's in bad shape." Kirath commented. "The humans might be running out of air. I'll go check it out."

"It could be a trap though." Kup warned.

"We'll all go then." Rodimus decided. "But proceed with caution. And Grimlock..."

"Yea?" the T-Rex answered.

"No biting till we tell you to."

"Nightfire?"

"Yes, I assumed you want me to stay onboard." I answered. It wasn't my responsibility after all.

"Scanning is complete." Sky Lynx reported. "Several organic life forms detected. Not sure if they're human, but they seem to be in bad shape."

"Let's move troops!" Rodimus ordered, readying his weapon.

I got a really bad feeling as the Autobots left Sky Lynx and approached the shuttle.

"I actually agree with you." Sky Lynx said, startling me.

I realized that I'd unconsciously voiced out my thoughts.

Just as Kirath was pulling open the main hatch, a blurred vision snapped into my head.

(Kirath! Don't touch it! ) I called out telepathically.

The warning came too late. A cannon emerged through the hatch, swiftly firing off an energy blast. Rodimus and the others scattered, however at this range, Sky Lynx wasn't able to escape in time.

All of a sudden, I was being roughly thrown from wall to wall. Sky Lynx was spinning out of control.

"Do something you idiot!" I screamed desperately.

"Arghhh! Ion blast! Navigational systems failing...can't control..."

He was plummeting wildly towards the planet below. I could see the planet spinning through the cockpit window.

That was the last thing I saw before losing consciousness.

* * *

"Uuugghhh..." I groaned, pulling myself up.

I looked around. I was still in the cockpit, but there was no one else around.

We had landed too. Or crash landed actually. The planet's surface was a dirty green and completely barren, much like the surface of Earth's moon. No signs of the enemy as of yet, but I wasn't sure how long that was going to last.

"Sky Lynx?" I called, "You all right?"

"If I told you I was, that would be lying." he groaned.

"Can you stand?"

"I can barely even move."

"Hold on." I shoved the hatch open and stepped outside.

He'd transformed into his dinobird form in order to break his fall. He was sprawled across the ground, lying on his chest, with his neck and tail stretched out. There were dents and scratches all over his hull. Parts of the formerly white painting was charred and covered with dust. At least his wings and thrusters seemed relatively intact.

"I'd say you're still space worthy," I muttered, "but..."

"My navigational computer is damaged." He finished. "Don't think I can fly."

I looked up and was surprised to see the starry sky filled with numerous colored laser bursts.

"The others are fighting up there." he told me, "So, it was a Quintesson trap after all."

"Then we've got to help." I flew over to where his head was lying and pulled open a panel at the back of his serpent-like head.

"What are you doing up there?" Sky Lynx asked.

"Trying to repair you, so just relax." I closely examined the circuitry within. "Well, you're in luck. Happens I'm pretty familiar with this format. I could get you up and running, give or take an hour or so."

Sky Lynx considered it for a moment.

"All right then. Just as long as you don't fry my CPU."

"Chill man," I said as I got to work, "I used to sneak into the hangars at night, disassemble the old space craft and reassemble them before dawn, just to see how they worked. Fixing you shouldn't be too different."

"Let's hope you can hurry," he urged, "we don't have forever."

* * *

I spent the next half-hour racing around his huge mass, desperately trying to recall all my self taught methods of ship repair. Of course, I'd never worked with a sentient shuttle before and I did pull a few wrong switches here and there.

"Ow! Do you know what you're doing?"

Fine...I pulled a lot of wrong switches.

"Well, sorry but battlefield medication wasn't meant to be a bed of roses you know." I growled, nearly slipping off his back, where I'd been working on.

"Then at least try." he complained, lifting his head and turning to stare towards me.

"Oh, shut up or I'll pull your vocal cords and disable your motion systems."

"You wouldn't dare!" he threatened.

"Oh yes I would!" I yelled back. I did just that, crossing a couple of wires and punching a few buttons.

Immediately, his head and neck fell back to the ground, paralyzed.

"Mmmmrrmmm! Hmmuuummm!"

I grinned. I'd always wanted to do that to somebody.

It took me a while longer, but finally the huge Autobot was able to get to his feet.

"Not bad at all." He commented, "But there's still a problem."

"Yes, I know. Your power supplies are pretty depleted too." I nodded.

That was a problem; we couldn't help the others if we couldn't fight.

_Hmmm...Sky Lynx's power supplies are drained...but mine aren't!_

I climbed up into his cockpit and placed a claw on the control panel.

"I've got an idea, but I need you to relax."

"But why?" he asked, confused.

I had already started the process, praying that I wouldn't screw up. Already, I could feel the link forming.

"Because, I'm going to borrow your body for a while."

"What the...argh!"

* * *

It was a really freaky sensation, suddenly shooting up from my smaller dragon mode to this gigantic winged dinosaur. As I charged towards the battle in dinobird mode, I realized that I actually liked it.

"How you doing there?" I asked.

"All right," Sky Lynx replied in my voice, "but I wish you'd given me some proper warning before switching our bodies."

"Sorry, but I think you wouldn't have approved of it."

"Sure as hell I wouldn't!"

My sensors automatically began to lock onto the enemy targets. There was a whole fleet of them, surrounding the false NASA shuttle. The Autobots were still firing away.

"Those are drone ships," Sky Lynx told me, "The Quintessons seldom fight their own battles."

"Then watch me bust em' up!" I roared, charging into the fray.

I unleashed a torrent of flames from my jaws, burning several of the drones into obviation. My comrades were cheering, but I didn't really hear.

I was a blur of motion, charging around and torching every hostile in sight. That added to the body mounted lasers, missiles and destroying ships with a single swipe of my tail, was one thrilling experience.

"Watch out!" I heard Kirath shout, "The ship!"

I watched, transfixed, as the hull of the NASA shuttle seemed to peel off. Parts were shifting too and the ship was doubling in size. As it formed into some spiral shaped spacecraft with a 'point' at its nose.

_I absolutely do not want to know which maniac designed that! _

It suddenly begun firing a beam and beginning to create a vortex, the only way I could only describe it. I then jumped back to reality and fired up my thrusters. A little too late though, because the force of the vortex was pulling me in.

"Damn!" I cursed.

I fired off my weapons wildly, hitting the enemy spacecraft and disintegrating it. There wasn't time to celebrate, however as I was beginning to lose control. That was when I noticed something near the eye of the storm.

_That symbol! _

"It was the same one I remembered jabbing my energon blade through. That was how I wound up stuck here in the first place." I gasped. "My energon blade gives off a strong energy burst, so perhaps I could activate the transport process if I hit the symbol with enough power."

"It's your choice!" Sky Lynx yelled.

My gut feeling told me to go with it. In my mind, I quickly formulated a plan.

"Yeah, this could be my ticket home. So here's the thing; I'm gonna blast it once more then switch us back. Give me enough time to jump out, then get away ASAP."

"Decided then." he nodded, "And Nightfire?"

"Yes?"

"It was...good to know you." He finally got out, "No matter how short it was. Fight hard."

"You know me a lot better. Someday, you'll understand why." I quickly replied, without giving him a chance to answer. "Brace yourself!"

I fired off one last fire blast and switched back to my own body. The task had taken a lot out of me and my strength was failing rapidly, but I couldn't give up.

Roaring, I leapt out of the door and unleashed my own fire breath into the eye of the storm. In the distance, I could hear jets sounding as Sky Lynx took off.

Energy was building up, lightning bolts flying everywhere, hinting an explosion was imminent. In a moment of despair, I realized I wouldn't be able to sufficiently power up the gate in time.

Then, I felt someone grab onto me and begin firing his own energy weapon into the eye.

"Kirath?!" I yelled, surprised, "Get out of here!"

"You need help!" he protested, still firing.

There wasn't anymore time for arguments. A white light was building up in the center and soon, it had completely engulfed my vision.

* * *

I hit the ground chest first, knocking the wind out of me. I looked up just in time to see Shadowflare reloading his bow gun.

Apparently, nothing but a few clicks had passed since I'd left and returned. Instinctively, my hands went for my rifle, but someone else shot the Predacon first.

"Who the?! Kirath?" I stared, open mouth at the jade green dragon bot that now wielded a deadly looking pair of handguns. He had practically the same structure as me, down to the transformation procedure and all, except he was larger and had yellow eyes instead of red.

"I think it's me, at least." the older soldier muttered.

Kirath shot the stunned Predacon again, sending him flying out of the cave to where Tarantulas and Syndrea were exchanging rounds.

"Huh? What?!" Tarantulas gasped as two Maximals emerged from the cavern. "Where'd that other one come from?"

"Who cares?" Shadowflare groaned, pulling himself to his feet. "Run for it!"

The duo grabbed Waspinator's pieces before dashing off into the distance, cursing and swearing all the way.

"Nightfire, who's that?" Syndrea asked, holstering her pistol.

"It's a really long story." I replied.

I saw her eyes go wide.

"You can speak again!" She ran up to me and gave me a hug.

"Great huh?" I asked, with false enthusiasm.

I turned over to Kirath, who was currently staring down into the cave. I felt whatever presence of the time warp gone, but I think he already knew.

"Guess I won't be going home..." he said sadly.

* * *

Over the next week, I helped Kirath adapt to his new environment. One with his experience and skills was gladly welcomed by the Maximals. And I had one heck of an adventure to brag about.

Later on, I managed to drag him out to a cliff overlooking a huge river, one of my personal favorite spots, and asked him why he'd come back to help me.

He was silent for a long while before he finally gave a reply.

"Sky Lynx asked me to." Kirath said, "All he said was he felt like it was destiny. Besides, I was the only one who happened to be within range."

"Kirath..." I muttered, "I'm sorry. It was selfish of me to ask you to do that, but..."

"You don't have to apologize, Sky Lynx. It was the honorable thing to do." The former Autobot put a hand on my shoulder.

"You know?" I snapped up, startled.

"Syndrea told me. I know she promised to keep that secret, but she felt this was an exception because you're terrible at expressing your feelings."

"Yeah, she does know me best." I nodded.

"We came up with a theory that when you switched bodies with Sky Lynx in the past, that was when your sparks bonded, or sort of became one with each other."

"And that's why...I as I am today." I muttered. "Because I made it that way. Hard to make sense of, though."

"Any plot line involving time travel is confusing either way." Kirath grinned.

"So Kirath, you're not mad at me?"

"My friend, why should I be?" He smiled warmly, "Sure I may have lost some things, but we have to move on. You've been through that too, right?"

I nodded.

"Don't look now, but I think it's my cue to go." Kirath whispered as Syndrea approached from behind. "I'm gonna go exploring a bit."

With a wave, the green dragon leapt off the cliff and spread his wings, soaring off into the dark sky.

"That probably would've been you." the female velociraptor walked up, clicking her killer claws against the rocks.

"It can be me." A toothy grin crept across my dragon face.

With a swing of my tail, I knocked her off the edge. I then somersaulted off and spread my wings, catching her in mid-flight.

"Grrrr...you trying to give me a heart attack or something?!" Syndrea growled.

"Maybe...and maybe not."

I lowered my head, feeling her neck muscles tense as our lips (or jaws) touched and held there. A feeling I was really beginning to enjoy.

* * *

That passionate moment was broken up when I failed to watch where I was going and promptly thumped my head against a badly positioned tree.


	8. The Extreme, Pt 1: Calm

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**The Extreme, Part 1: Calm**

By nightdragon0

Nightfire knelt down, feeling the wind rustling through the wings of his dragon form. He closed his eyes and reached out, beginning to feel all that was around me. Every sound, every movement, nothing escaped his senses. At the bottom of the ravine, sitting at a stream that branched off from a small waterfall nearby, there were certainly a lot of sounds.

Then, he felt the disturbance.

Reacting swiftly, Nightfire reached up, caught Syndrea's sword arm and threw her to the ground in front of him.

"Looks like you're still dead." The dragon laughed, holding his sword against her chest.

"Hey no fair. You were probing me, weren't you?" The female velociraptor protested.

"Yeah, maybe. Don't worry about it. It's good practice for us both." He said, pulling her up. "Speaking of practice, up for a match?"

"You bet. General's been teaching me a few tricks!"

General was Kirath's nickname, in regard to the rank he'd once held.

"Maximize," Nightfire transformed, "Let's go!"

"Yargh!" With a roar, Nightfire was on the attack.

Syndrea met him head on, blocking each of his blows. She launched a counter attack of her own, Nightfire in turn guarding aginst that. Syndrea jumped back as he tried a wide swing and immediately went on to stike at his sword.

That actually statrled the dragon, nearly disarming him as well. Still, having experience in the technique, he managed to hold on.

Nightfire charged and threw his body wieght against her. At closer range, the force of the blow was enough to send the smaller transformer to the ground. However, Syndrea cushioned the impact of her fall by slamming her arms to the ground and rolling backwards, avoiding Nightfire's downward thrust, ending with his sword impaled in the ground.

Nightfire tugged at his weapon and got it out just time time to leapt away as Syndrea rolled forward and attacked.

Leaping into the air, the dragon brought his sword down in a downward thrust. Syndrea summersalted away, but turned and struck. Nightfire guarded, but recieved a fist to his face as well. Gorwling, he lashed with his tail, forcing his sparring partner back.

The match was becoming more intense. Syndrea was actually doing well. She jumped back against a rock and used it to propel her slim body over him. Nightfire immediately spun around and they met head on in a series of furious yells and slashes.

And they were fighting with their actual weapons, not the practice swords used for training. In the midst of things, water and small stones were being kicked up everywhere.

Finally the two clashed, shoved back, then poised themselves to charge again. Unfortunately, Syndrea stumbled and fell forward. Instinctively Nightfire halted his attack and reached out to catch her, but had to twist his body to avoid both her weapon, and prevent his from hitting her.

At that awkward angle, he was unable to keep his balance and the two fell, ending up in a heap on the floor.

"Ouch...whew...not bad Syndrea." He panted. "You might...actually take down one of the current Preds with that."

"Oh...don't...patronize me." Syndrea replied, annoyed.

"Boy, that looks very professional." Calico's voice interrupted the pair. A brown fox had appeared, standing on the ledge above them.

Nightfire and Syndrea sprang to sitting positions in surprise.

"The foxy lady." Nightfire muttered, "So, what do we owe the pleasure of this visit? Optimus still mad at me for throwing that flashbang when he said not to?"

"Sure as hell he is, but that's not why I'm here. I just need to talk to Syndrea for a while."

"No problem." Syndrea agreed, cheerful as always.

"I'll..." Nightfire begun.

"Sorry, ladies only." Calico held up her paw. "Syndrea? If you please?"

"Be good and wait a while." Syndrea transformed to beast mode and placed a claw on his shoulder. "We won't be long."

"And no eavesdropping!" Calico said sternly.

The two left, walking to the top of the waterfall. It happened to be on an open clearing, with the nearest trees being miles away. Nightfire knew that there was absolutely no way to sneak up on someone like that, especially in broad daylight where his black hide stood out like a sore thumb.

_But...I'm not a good boy, now am I? Hehehe... _He rubbed his claws together in eagerness.

* * *

"Syndrea, you noticed how tight Airazor and Tigatron have been getting lately?" Calico asked.

"Yeah, the two nature guides." The velociraptor replied, nodding.

"Then, you and dragon-breath back there are, well, sort of close too."

"Calico, what's your point?" Syndrea asked, noticing that there was more to it.

"I...erm...well...I... I...I sorta like Dinobot, but I can't find a way to tell him!" She finally blurted out.

Syndrea was silent for a while, and then started giggling.

"That was it?"

"Hey, I'm a soldier remember? This kind of situation isn't actually my field of expertise."

"Well, not like I'm a psychologist or anything." Syndrea spoke, "But I think you don't have to say anything."

"Huh?"

"Really, I would wait and let it come. It'll take time, but Dinobot sure doesn't look like the type who'd appreciate being popped 'the' four-letter word."

"I DO NOT love him!" Calico yelled so loudly that it startled several birds nearby. "I mean, I realize he's an honorable bot, you know, that kind of mushy stuff, and I just want to be, close friends. That's it."

"OK, just relax there." Syndrea held up her claws, "I get your point. But I still say you get to know him better. You know, it reminds me a lot of Nightfire too. They're both stubborn..."

"Nasty." Calico cut in.

"Mean." Syndrea continued.

"Insensitive."

"Don't know when and how to ask for help."

"Predacons."

"Great, I've run out of words." Syndrea laughed, "But you get the picture."

"Yes, I think I do." Calico stood up, "Well, thanks."

"Anytime." They gave each other a paw to claw high-five before the brown fox took off, following a trail that led down into the ravine.

Syndrea waited until her friend had disappeared from sight, then turned around and scanned the surrounding area. Something didn't feel quite right.

"Nightfire, I know you're here somewhere!" She yelled, "Come out now!"

On cue, a hole opened in the dirt near her feet and Nightfire's dragon head popped out.

"You're starting to think so much like me that it's scary." He grinned, showing off his fangs.

"You dug through the entire slope?" Syndrea queried.

"Nah, I flew till about three quarters way and dug through from there. Damn, all that work and all I got was girl talk."

"So, you heard everything?"

"Every word." He laughed, "And so, I'm a stubborn, mean, nasty, insensitive Predacon, am I?"

"And you're starting to corrupt me with you evil influence too." Syndrea sighed.

"Now, doesn't that just beat all?"

"Certainly, because before meeting you, I wouldn't have had to guts to do THIS!" Syndrea raised her foot and stomped his head back underground. All the dragon could do was let off a muffled cry.

High above these scenes, the twin moons were just barely visible. What neither of them knew was that the time with **two** moons was drawing to a close.

Soon, Nightfire would be called upon to infiltrate the Predacon base on a very important mission...

* * *

**During 'Coming of the Fuzors: Part Two', several days later... **

"Rrrrrrraarrgghhh!"

With a loud clang and an electric sizzle, Nightfire's Energon sword met the Gunblade of his rival, Deathwing.

"Hah!"

Each one blocking the other's blows, their swords locked and they met, face to face. Although both had been affected by the recent Quantum serge that had hit the planet, their rivalry had remained unaltered.

"Give it up!" Deathwing taunted, "The Maximals are finished, and you've no where else to run to."

"Then at least I can kill you before I die!" Nightfire roared, kicking his opponent away.

The pair backed away from each other and regained their balance, posing in battle stances. Then, they charged. Nightfire ducked beneath Deathwing's sword swing and, with a Rurouni Kenshin-style maneuver, was suddenly behind his opponent and up in the air, weapon ready.

However, the click of a Shotgun caused Nightfire to abruptly changed his course of action and swerve to the side. He felt the crackle of the energy blast whizzing past his shoulder as much as the loud boom temporarily deafened him.

Growling, he landed and stared towards the source of the attack, Muricate, the saber-toothed tiger poised on a rock.

"What are you doing here?" Deathwing yelled, annoyed. "Get lost! This is my business!"

"I fight all who are...argh!" The silent Predacon's words were suddenly interrupted as she was blown off her perch.

Syndrea stepped into view, holding Nightfire's previously dropped M4A1 Assault rifle. Like the rest who'd come out of stasis pods, the Quantum serge had not affected her.

"Late for the dance, am I?" She grinned, taking a place beside Nightfire and drawing her own, blue-bladed energon sword.

"Let's make this a duet, shall we?" Nightfire winked at her. She hadn't let him down, just as he'd expected of her.

In response, Muricate equipped her knuckle-mounted claws.

"Don't get in my way girl." Deathwing growled, clutching his Gunblade more tightly.

"Worry about yourself." She replied, not taking her eyes off the two Maximals.

With that, the battle continued. Male to male. Female to female.

Nightfire and Syndrea coordinated their attacks as they 'danced' around, their respective green and blue shimmering blades slicing flying about like a pair of Jedi Knights'.

The two Predacons were experienced fighters, but as individuals and not as a team. In the midst of the slashing, guarding, deflecting and blocking, Nightfire and Syndrea constantly traded places, and traded opponents, serving to further confuse them.

Nightfire slashed at Deathwing, then bent down and let Syndrea leapt over him and kick Deathwing in the face. Immediately, she rolled back and allowed Nightfire space to launch an uppercut into Muricate, who happened to be approaching for and attack.

The two Preds hit the ground at the same time.

"Don't look now, but I think your buds are making a break for it." Nightfire pointed.

Indeed, Optimus Primal's suddenly reentry into the battle had turned the tide and the Predacon forces were beginning to retreat.

"Damn! We'll finish this another time!" Deathwing cursed angrily as he transformed.

Muricate waved to him, and he grabbed his colleague in his vulture talons and flew off.

The battle had been hard and the Maximals had been caught outnumbered. Nightfire and Syndrea, who had left earlier on, had barely returned in time to join the final clash. Still, they'd prevailed and lived to fight another day.

The couple happily gave each other high-fives before turning and walking back towards the Maximal base.

* * *

Later on, Nightfire was standing in the room he used while he was in the base and looking over his new, Transmetal robot form.

"Well, someone's certainly happily about his new look."

Turning away from the mirror, he saw Syndrea leaning against the doorway.

"Yeah, well, a bit metallic on the scales, but I guess the extra armor will be useful."

The basic structure of his robot form had not changed much, with the exception of colors. The primary color was still a shinny black. The pervious silver sections: dragon's 'toes', dragon's claws, out-linings around the knees, waist, elbows, wrists and neck were now golden.

He now had a pair of broad shoulder pads, each one with two golden spikes pointing away from his body. His arms were a dark blue between the shoulder pads to where the beast mode forelegs folded to reveal dark blue robot hands and serve as armguards. On each upper arm was a trio of black leather straps that had been wrapped around them.

His wings, through metallic now, were still as flexible and moveable as before. They were now in a single color too: silver.

The three horns on his head still pointed backwards, except now they were golden. The gold color ran on and a red jewel was embedded where the three points met on his forehead, making it almost look like a crown.

"The imperial dragon." Syndrea laughed, remembering when the quantum surge had knocked everybody offline, she'd woken up in his arms and stared in shock, even through she was glaring up into his familiar fiery red eyes.

Nightfire gave a thumbs-up and breathed in, trying to spread out his shoulders and make them look wider. His height had not changed, but the new armor certainly gave him a figure contradicting to that.

The only new addition to his arsenal was a miniature electronic rail cannon that could be mounted on his wrist or on his back, between the wings. Slow to fire and very heavy in power consumption, but a devastating weapon nevertheless.

Nightfire shifted into beast mode with the same transformation sequence as before. Dropping onto all fours, armguards lengthened to became the dragon's forelimbs and foreclaws. The hidden dragon head and neck emerged from beneath the chestplate and covered his robot head. The dragon head had been given the same 'crown-like' treatment of his robot one, together with a sliver mask that covered the entire head above the jaws, revealing only the glowing red eyes.

Since his beast form carried on a lot of properties from his robot form, the color-coding remained the same.

"Shall we go? I'm eager to stretch these new wings here."

Syndrea returned to beast mode too and together, they walked towards the exit.

"You know, I think those aliens of ours had more to do with my beast form than just this." Nightfire suddenly muttered.

"What do you mean?" Syndrea asked.

"I haven't told you how I first got this form, now did I?"

"Strangely, no."

"Well, when we first crashed here, the other sent out the scanners of get their beast forms and stuff, right?"

"Yeah."

"I wasn't happy about those we got here. And Cheetor decided to run off, so I told the others to go first. They didn't know about me being a Predacon then, so they left me alone in the base, with the scanner running."

"And then?"

"That was when I started to feel an odd presence. I can't really describe it, but something like the chill you get when you think ghosts are around. Then, the long-range scanners picked up something at the very furthest of their capabilities, which weren't very good back then. It was this."

Nightfire lifted a claw and tapped his chest.

"A dragon, I knew it from the old earth myths. But they were supposedly just myths. So, I got myself into the scales and went to check it out. All I found was a footprint on top of a sandy cliff. I thumped my foot there and it was exactly the same. But then, I got a call from the others needing me in the first battle and I went off. I came back later, but the footprints were gone by then. So, basically, I never found whatever it was that gave me this."

"That's very interesting."

"Here, check this out."

He brought up a palmtop and flashed a holographic video clip. The image was quite blurred and full of static, but it clearly showed the outline of two dragon-like shapes in a forest, one a darker color than the other. They were jumping from tree to tree, at very close proximity to the camera.

"I stole this little thing from Iacon's old database. They say it was taken around the 20th Century, on Earth, but no one knows for sure."

Syndrea's response was a long whistle.

"About what?" Nightfire asked, swinging his bladed black tail behind him. "The clip or that fact that I stole it from Iacon?"

"Both."

"Then, everything was swell until the day where I met Deathwing face-to-face in battle. He recognized me and blurted it out to everyone else there. Of course, you know what it did to my standing with my 'comrades'. That was just before you showed up."

"Geez, that sorta sucks. But everything's all right now, isn't it?"

"Thanks mostly to you." He gave a toothy grin, showing off his white fangs.

The pair reached the main control room, which was currently empty and opened the roof hatch, revealing the shinning stars of the night sky.

"Vehicle mode." Nightfire commanded his system.

Like the other transmetals, he too had a third form. This one simply involved spreading his wings out flat, like a plane's, and tucking all his limbs except for his tail in. Finally, the new rail cannon took its designated spot on his back.

"Dragon glider, at your service." He winked, bending his neck towards her.

"Show off." The velociraptor laughed.

She hopped on, holding tightly onto the handles of the mounted cannon with her foreclaws, and lay down on her chest.

"Hold on tight and fasten your safety belt!" Nightfire said.

"What safety belllllllttttttt? Yyyyaaaarrgghhhhh!" Syndrea screamed as Nightfire suddenly lifted through the open roof hatch and accelerated. "Idiot! Do you always have to do that?"

"Food and beverage will not be served on this flight." Nightfire continued in a cheerful tone. "And whatever you do, do not press the big red button on the rail cannon with the 'smiley' face when the cannon is pointed at any part of my body. Epically my head."

Syndrea examined the weapon and found the button he was talking about. It was obviously the trigger for the cannon.

"Cause I wouldn't appreciate having my head blown off. Thank you and have a pleasant flight!"

The pair carried on in silence for a short while.

"You know, things seem to have calmed down a little." Syndrea commented, "But I'm doubtful you feel that way."

"I tend to be painfully right whenever I get a bad feeling, like I've got now."

"And what would that be?"

"I don't know! It's just a hunch, that's all. Hey, we can handle aliens, I'm sure we can handle whatever the future decides to throw at us."

"I suppose." Syndrea said, not entirely convinced. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask you. What is it between you and Deathwing?"

"I...erm...look, the sun's coming up! Nice weather, huh?" Nightfire staggered, eager to change the subject.

Syndrea sighed. That basically equaled an 'I don't want to talk about it'.

* * *

**The remaining sections take place between 'Maximal no more' and 'Other Visits'. **

Deathwing walked along the corridor, his feet clanging loudly on the metal floor. Normally, a lot of Predacons with something to hide would find more discrete ways of moving around. The Transmetal, however, wasn't in the mood.

Like his rival, he'd gained quite a bit out of the Quantum surge.

For him, it had mostly 'stiffened' out the feathers of his black vulture beast mode and added pieces of silver armor onto certain sections: the chest, head and both upper and lower sections of the wings. That and the additional set of jets at the base of the wings, where they met his body, gave him added speed and defense.

His transformation was still similar to Airazor's, with the beast head ending up on the chest and wings staying on his back. His wings were now equipped with a hidden set of missile launchers on both the upper and lower sides, beneath the armored plating.

The third mode was also modified from his beast mode. It involved revealing the missile launchers, swinging the jets up onto the wings and converting them to rotors, and sliding a 'helmet' over his head. This gave him underwater attack capabilities, something both sides currently lacked, but at the same time water wasn't much of his forte. Still, there was always the thrill of the extra challenge. And the prospect of something potentially advantageous was not to be ignored.

Bringing his mind back to the present, the mercenary glared up at his destination, an old computer room and the east wing of this lower level. It was rarely used, and maintained even less, but also making it an excellent place for someone wanting to hack into restricted files without being traced. Of course, one had to be able to set up and modify the old machine to one's needs, but Deathwing was certainly capable of it.

However, it seemed someone else was inside. That someone was punching the wall in frustration.

"I don't get it! What AM I?"

It was Muricate. Deathwing was surprised that she'd actually progressed this far.

The feline had been created as part of an experiment that had involved tapping into the spirit energies of the planet's dead creatures. Essentially, taking a random creature's soul, mixing it with a Cybetronian's programming and creating a spark. Megatron had scrapped the project due to its inefficiency, but Muricate remained nevertheless.

At first, she'd been wild and vicious, barely telling ally from enemy. However, in spite of the little time he spent around the base, Deathwing noticed that was she beginning to learn. Slowly at first, but it had been there. Now, she was almost to the intelligence level of the rest of the Predacons. And in the case of one or two, above them. She might not know much about computers and systems, but she'd picked up combat strategies relatively quickly and was a natural born fighter.

It surprised him, really, how adaptable creatures on this world were.

_Perhaps, she might just work to my advantage, if played correctly. _He thought, opening the doorway and leaning against it, arms folded.

She seemed to have taken a slight liking to him after the incident during the aftershocks of the Quantum surge where he'd prevented her from plunging into the lava by shoving her into one of the CR chambers below. It had been entirely an accident; he'd grabbed onto Terrorsaur to prevent his fellow flyer from ending up in the lava with Scorponok. However, he'd lost his balance and hit into her, but not like she knew that.

Since her body was made out of the same 'Substance P' metal that Nightfire's new body was, that same action had probably prevented her from becoming transmetallized like him.

As to Terrorsaur, Deathwing had weighed his options and figured he didn't want to be doing flying missions with bug-face and the ant. And since he had the common sense not to stand on one of the hovering platforms, might as well make the featherless freak owe him a huge debt.

Muricate begun throwing random objects around in frustration, one of which was a pipe that Deathwing caught to protect his head.

"Ahem..." He grunted loudly.

"Oh...it's you." Muricate stopped and turned towards him.

"You want to know what you are?"

Muricate faced the computer, then looked towards him and nodded.

"No one else will tell me, and this thing won't work either! But I know there's something different about me. I'm not like the rest of you, I just don't know!"

"You are correct. You are something else. An experiment most others see as gone wrong. That's probably why they won't talk."

From her expression, Muricate didn't seem entirely convinced.

"Your distrust is expected, but let me tell you, I just work here. What motives Megatron and his goons have is out of my business."

"Then, you'll explain it all to me?" She asked, giving in.

Nodding, Deathwing slowly detailed the story of her creation. When he was done, he added in a few more convincing words of his own.

"Despite your origins, you are a Predacon now. And one who is a good warrior. One that I've been looking for."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"I'm proposing we enter a partnership. You and I. A secret one of course. One with many rewards, more than just victory alone." He winked.

Deathwing felt she agreed almost too easily.

"Now, I'm going to need your help with something." He placed a disc into the computer and brought up a map. "Blackarachnia is not an entirely reliable source when it comes to getting information stored on CDs, but I have way to countercheck things. Now listen closely my dear."

With that, Deathwing outlined his plans for the next day and showed her what he intended on the screen. By the end of it, she was grinning with glee and nodding.

"Tomorrow then." She agreed.

"Indeed." Deathwing smiled. He then leaned closer and kissed her. Muricate was a little surprised at first, but soon she was enjoying the moment.

The two then went their separate ways.

_Not bad at all, _the vulture was thinking, recalling all the seductive tricks he used to pull on the bar girls back on Cybertron. _I get to have a little fun at the same time. _

Meanwhile, Shadowflare, the Black Panther, stepped out form his hiding place deep in the shadows of the room.

"In my humble opinion, fascinating indeed." He whispered to himself.

* * *

Kirath swerved left, carefully avoiding the jagged rocky outcropping.

The jade-green dragon turned back to make sure Cheetor was still following him. He needn't have worried, as the young Maximal was hot on his heels, as energetic as ever.

Kirath landed on a cliff, followed by the Transmetal cat in his flight mode.

"We getting any readings General?" Cheetor asked.

"Some, unfortunately they're disorientated." Kirath replied, banging on the sensory device. "Not good."

"Megs must be jamming up the place." Cheetor said, "Slagging jamming stations."

"Complaining won't help us zero in on that power source we detected earlier on." Kirath sighed, putting the sensor away. "I'm sure you heard? The one with alien origin."

"Yeah. Geez, after nearly killing us back with that planet buster, you'd think they'd leave us alone already?"

"One thing about enemies kid, is that if they really want you dead, they want you dead. And they'll keep trying." He turned and glanced down into the snow-covered valley below them. Branching out from it was a series of mountains, likewise covered with snow.

And pinpointing a specific location amongst them without sensory equipment would prove to be quite a task.

"Right now, we have to worry about getting to whatever that power source may be before the Predacons do." Kirath said, spreading his wings.

"Man, I guess no one said it was going to be easy, huh?" Cheetor replied, firing up his jets.

"You've got the spirit kid. Let's see how you keep it up."

"Watch me."

With that, they were off.

* * *

"Hey feathers! I...ugh!"

Terrorsaur gasped as Deathwing abruptly grabbed his neck with his talons.

"Listen here you featherless freak," The vulture snarled, "the only reason I didn't let you go dropping like a rock into that lava pit was so that I wouldn't end up doing this sort of thing with bug-face and the mindless drone. So, whatever scheme you've got in mind there, I'm not interested. Clear?"

"Yes..." The dactyl-bot squeaked.

"Good." He released his hold. "Now, since you're got the sensor, lead the way and we can get this fragging search over and done with."

The Transmetal Terrorsaur nodded and brought a visor down over his eyes.

(Author's note: In this series, Terrorsaur survived the Quantum surge and was Transmetallized by it. He appears exactly the same as the Transmetal Terrorsaur toy does.)

Deathwing let his companion fly several feet away, and then activated his com-link.

"Muricate, you done yet?" He whispered.

A loud bang came from the other side of the receiver, followed by Muricate's laugh.

"Don't worry. Waspinator and Inferno are experiencing some 'technical difficulties', as you requested." She kicked a piece of Waspinator away, admiring her handiwork of the neatly planted bomb.

"Excellent. We can't have those two buffoons babbling about any of this to Megatron. Now you can..."

The sounds of shots being fired interrupted him.

"Slaggit!"

"Muricate? What's going on?"

"Grrrr ... Maximals found us! Dinobot, the rat and the fox. I'll take them on here!"

"Negative. Fall back immediately!"

"Shadowflare and Blackarachnia are already nearing my position. I'll look too suspicious if I start running off!"

"All right then. Just keep the Maximals away."

"Sorry about it." She said, over the noise of her shotgun, and ended the transmission.

"Deathwing," Terrorsaur called, "over here! I think it's right down here!"

He was pointing down to a valley below.

* * *

"What happened to those two?" Blackarachnia asked, pointing to the pile of Waspinator and Inferno pieces.

"What do you think?" Shadowflare muttered as he fired his Bowgun. "In my humble opinion, it's a typical sight."

"They did make good shields through." Muricate lied.

However, she was cursing on the inside. She wouldn't be able to stick to Deathwing's plan now that she was caught up in this battle.

On the other side of the battlefield, the three Maximals were involved in a pretty much standard duck-shoot-duck procedure.

"This appears to be a diversion." Dinobot muttered.

"Yeah, chopper-face may actually be right." Rattrap said.

"Unfortunately, we need to get PAST them, and it's too difficult to go around them without taking them out first." Calico finished.

As she stood up to fire, a shot hit the rock she was hiding behind. The 'boom' right in front of her face startled her, sending the fox falling backwards and losing her twin Uzis. One of the machine guns fell forward into a ditch in front of her, out of reach. The other landed behind her.

Swearing under her breath, she reached for it. Dinobot, who'd seen her fall, apparently got the same idea. So, it happened that their hands met on top of the gun. For a moment, both stared at each other in surprise.

"Hello? People? We've got a battle to fight here!" Rattrap yelled, breaking the moment up.

Giving each other annoyed glances, Dinobot and Calico went back to firing.

* * *

"Grrrr...stand down or die!"

Deathwing recognized the voice as belonging to the green dragon who'd recently appeared out of seemingly nowhere.

_Pity, I was hoping Nightfire would show up here. Oh well, I suppose I could take it out on this one. _

Kirath was approaching rapidly and let loose with his lightning breath, contrary to the fiery one Nightfire breathed.

"Terrorize!" He shouted, dodging to the side, not caring weather Terrorsaur had been hit or not. Drawing his Gunblade, he took aim at the green dragon.

"No you don't!" Out of the blue, Cheetor transformed to robot mode and jumped onto him, attempting to wrestle the weapon from his hands.

"Get off!" Deathwing yelled, furiously swerving around and trying to shake Cheetor off.

As he spun around wildly, he saw Terrorsaur and Kirath, having both transformed in mid-air, were trading shots as well. In the midst of his own struggle, the Gunblade went off, sending a Buckshot round down into the mountainside.

All of a sudden, there was one explosion after another.

_What in the pit? My rounds couldn't possibly do that much damage! There had to be something there... _

Deathwing finally managed to throw Cheetor off him, however he was currently more interested in looking down at the mountainside he'd just blown open than finishing the battle. Snow should've started pouring down, but something was preventing it.

As he looked down, Deathwing spotted a glowing blue sphere about the size of both his fists put together. It begun to glow so brightly that everyone had to stop fighting and cover their eyes.

Squinting, Deathwing saw the explosions had jarred something else lose from an adjacent mountain.

_A ... stasis pod?_

One that seemed to be marked with a large 'X' on it. It fell, directly into blinding blue light of the alien sphere. Almost immediately, an explosion of energon shook the area.

Deathwing cried out in pain as the energon surge erupted into his circuitry.


	9. The Extreme, Pt 2: Initiation

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**The Extreme, Part 2: Initiation**

By nightdragon0

"Sky Lynx!"

"Rodimus?" I asked, looking over in his direction. The hangar was empty except for the two of us. "I thought you'd have left for Cybertron already."

"Someone apparently made a mess of servicing the engines and we're basically stuck." The Autobot commander laughed. "I haven't seen you in a while Sky Lynx. How's everything going up there?"

"Well, I liked it better when it was mainly us and the Decepticons. There were great battles to fight then, at least."

"Then you wouldn't be stuck with all this shipping duty, I assume."

"It's an insult to one who hold a rank such as mine."

"With all the downsizing and upgrading going on, I'd say you're getting onto the endangered species list."

"Indeed." I nodded. I was the size of a large shuttle, or a standard gestalt/combiner transformer. That meant I used fuel in amounts like a shuttle, not like a regular Cybertronian. But unlike a shuttle, I needed to be constantly supplied, not just when I was scheduled to travel. "How have you fared then, Rodimus?"

"Since the democracy came into things, I've pretty much had a great deal of responsibility lifted off my shoulders."

"And I'm thinking you would be in the main governing body of Cybertron."

"Believe me, I've had my fair share of that during the wars. I still serve as an advisor, but nothing that's going to send a whole bunch of assassins on my tail."

"Peace, they say, is merely a foreshadowing for a greater battle." I muttered.

"That may be so." Rodimus nodded. "But let's concentrate on the present here. My rides' down, and since the schedules say you're headed back to Cybertron, I was hoping you'd give me one."

"If you don't mind riding with the cargo, it would be my pleasure."

"Great. Reliable as always, old friend."

I lowered the legs of my dinobird mode and extended a ramp to allow Rodimus to climb aboard. This was the combination my by bird mode and my lynx mode, making me looking like a winged dinosaur on four legs.

"As always, this flight has been blessed with my superior talents. Just sit back and leave the flying to me." I declared as I transformed to shuttle mode and fired up my engines, spending us speeding away from the moon of Argentia II.

"I see time hasn't done anything to improve your ego." Rodimus sighed, taking his seat at the cockpit. "It's going to be just like old times."

The stars around us shot by as I carried on my flight. The Argentia system was comprised of 50 small moons and planets orbiting a sun. A lot of raw energon minerals had been discovered around this uninhibited system and I'd made many runs back and fro.

I went along on my usual route (the fastest one of course). However, I begun to feel that something was wrong, but neglected to mention it until my long-range scanners started beeping.

"What's that?" Rodimus asked.

"Odd. My scanners have picked up some unidentifiable communications signal. It seems to be coming from the moon Argentia 52."

"That moon was cleaned out a long time ago." Rodimus said. "You're probably mistaken."

"The chances of my highly accurate and advanced technology being wrong are a 100 to 1." I insisted. "This certainly merits a quick investigation."

"Well, I certainly don't mind the detour. Let's just make it quick."

"Fortunately, it's Sky Lynx you're talking about here. I will be quicker than quick."

I deviated from my normal course and descended towards the moon. The source of the signal happened to be near the old landing pad, and I touched down there, smoothly as ever. Besides the launch pad, there were just a few old Cybertronian one-man shuttles and the run down processing factory, having been out of service for years now. The factory had been built into part of a mountain.

"Looks deserted." Rodimus commented, stepping out. He walked up to one of the old shuttles nearby and glanced into the cockpit. "Hmmm? This shuttled has been upgraded and fueled. This place was supposed to be abandoned for years."

"Something is not right." I growled, transforming into dinobird mode. "I don't know what, but I feel it."

"Let's check out the factory." Rodimus nodded, pulling out his gun.

It took along one swipe of my tail to send the old doors crashing inwards. We were walking through the corridors when I heard footsteps. I shadowy figure dashed in front of us.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Rodimus demanded, pointing his gun in the figure's direction.

All of a sudden, a laser blast shot the weapon out of his hand. On a walkway above us, a humanoid figure flickered into view. Cloaking technology that even my sensors had failed to detect. Another and another appeared.

"Attack!" A voice commanded. "The Autobots must not be allowed to leave here alive!"

"Dammit!" Rodimus cursed, jumping back as laser fire rained down.

"RRRRAAGGGHHH!" I let loose with the flames from my jaws, incinerating several figures who'd been bold enough to jump down in front of me. They seemed distinctively Cybertronian, but didn't seem to have any transformation abilities. Each one was heavily armored, with a helmet that shielded any signs of their identity. Their weapon technology was definitely on par with ours.

Being my size, it was pretty much impossible for me not to get hit, the lasers leaving burning marks where they hit. Even on my armored hide, they pierced right to the circuitry.

"Rodimus take one of those shuttles and get help! I'll cover your retreat!" I yelled, firing off a couple of missiles.

"You can take them all by yourself!" Rodimus protested.

"Just GO! That's an order!!" I roared, swing my tail to knock another of the soldiers back. "Listen to me at least this time!"

"I'll be back Sky Lynx! I promise!" The Autobot commander transformed into his vehicle mode and raced off, barging a couple of guards out of his way.

"Stop him! Get out there you fools!" The commander ordered. I still couldn't figure out where his voice was coming from, but I had little time to think.

I fired at the ceiling just as Rodimus got out, sending huge rocks crashing down, sealing up the entrance of the cavern/factory. That would deter any forms of pursuit from here. Unfortunately, it also left me with no means of escape.

More and more soldiers were appearing. I screamed in pain as a rocket blew off my left wing. Desperately, I looked around and spotted what seemed to be a power generator. With a roar, I leapt up and fired up my jets, propelling myself towards the generator.

I sent a barrage of missiles into it, resulting in a huge explosion that threw me back against the wall. I was in bad shape now, shields depleted, armor damaged and power supplies failing. But I would not be defeated.

However, as I got up, I was hit by a yellow burst on energy. Several more followed after that. The pain that shot up into my processor was incredible, but I found myself unable to cry out.

Unable to move even. My servos were not responding to anything I wanted to do.

_Paralyzed! _I realized in horror. I could only struggle in vain against it as the soldiers surrounded me.

Each one took their time to aim, then fired at once. I could tell my legs were blown off, but everything else was oblivious to me. I collapsed onto my chest, head hitting the ground.

My vision was blurred, but I could still make out a Cybertronian stepping up in front of me, arrogantly shoving his foot onto my snout. I could do nothing to resist.

He was obviously the commander, much larger than the other soldiers. Unlike the others, his helmet left his mouth exposed.

"You're fought well, Sky Lynx but in vain." He laughed. His voice was deep, reverberating and sounded truly hideous. "Those were extremely unstable charges from a prototype, but it seems as if you've just been disabled and not destroyed."

"Sir, the other one has escaped." A voice from off to the side reported.

"No matter." The commander replied. "We will be gone, without a trance after this." Then, he looked down at me. "I'm sure you'll want to know who we are before you die."

The Cybertronian folded his arms and cocked his head to the side.

"We are like you, but without a name for our fraction. In those early centuries of the Great War, we fled Cybertron, vanishing into the deepest regions of this vast galaxy. Whilst you've fought, we've dedicated ourselves to research, developing technology beyond what you can even begin to comprehend. The time will come, when we take Cybertron and after which become the supreme rulers of the known universe." He laughed long and loud. "You may have delayed our plans a little, but our time will come. We shall disappear again, not wasting valuable resources on needless battles."

_This ... another fraction._ I thought. _I ... must... warn...Cybertron! _

My opponent knelt down to stroke my head.

"The great commander Sky Lynx, how pitiful you look struggling." He whipped out a huge plasma cannon and jabbed it at my forehead. "Worry not, I'm going to make it look like you took this whole place and everyone of us down with you. You'll go down in history as a great hero after all. But, the dead man tells no tales, as they say..."

The cannon lit up, a humming sound indicating it was charging.

_NO! _I cried silently. _NO! IT CAN'T END LIKE THIS!! _

The last thing I saw was the grinning face of my nemesis as he emptied the plasma cannon into my head.

_NNOOOO! _

* * *

I snapped up, screaming.

That was when Syndrea's fist flew into my face, knocking me to the ground.

"Argh!"

"Oh no! I'm sorry!" Syndrea gasped, running over to help me up. "But the way you were screaming like that, I just had to do something."

"Yeah, sure." I nodded, panting.

I ran my claws down the chest of my dragon beast mode. Black, sliver and gold coloring. I watched my chest rising and falling in accordance with my breathing.

It was me, Nightfire, the dragon. I was no longer Sky Lynx, the Autobot commander, the dinobird.

"Just a dream." I muttered.

"Another vision?"

"Of the past. But it's over and done with. Don't worry." I said, standing up.

Syndrea and I were at the cavern I used as my den, fixing it up since the Quantum serge pretty much trashed everything. Syndrea had been repairing the communications relay and I'd, well, lain back and fallen asleep.

The velociraptor nodded and went back to fiddling around with the wires. From the look she gave me, I knew that she was going to ask me about it later.

As she twisted the wires, a hissing around came over the com-link. Both of us knelt over to hear it.

"Nightfire ... _hiss ... _drea. Need bo ... _hiss ... _report back to ..._hiss..._" It was Optimus Primal's voice.

"We heard you Optimus." Syndrea replied. "We'll be there shortly. Over and out."

* * *

"Status reports say that they both took a pretty large burst of energon, but otherwise they're OK." I said, indicating the two stasis pods that held Cheetor and Kirath.

Optimus nodded in approval and turned towards the computer screen. Considering he'd called everyone back to base, this had to be a significantly big thing. Rattrap had been dispatched for some reconnaissance mission, leaving him out of the gathering. The elevator hummed and brought up Tigatron and Airazor, the last of our members to arrive. Everyone took their spots at the circular table. Except me: my regular spot was leaning against the wall with my arms folded. I'm sure most of the others disapproved of this behavior, but I generally couldn't care less.

"I'll called you back here because I think we might have a serious problem on our hands." The Maximal commander said, assuming one of his 'big, important speech tones'. "Calico's team recovered the flyers in pretty bad shape."

"Yeah." Calico added in. "All I know is, we saw that huge energon explosion, the Preds we were fighting split and then we found those two."

"While they won't be able to tell us much, Kirath recorded those final moments before he went offline." Optimus continued.

_Quick thinking._ I thought.

Optimus played back Kirath's recording on the monitor. The screen was shaky, indicating that he'd been in the air. We were viewing things from Kirath's point of view and he turned towards a snow-covered mountain that had just been blown open. The snow from the adjacent peaks should've started pouring down into the artificially created opening, but it didn't.

"W...What's that?" Cheetor's voice came from off screen.

"I don't know." Kirath muttered.

There seemed to be a blue glow coming from within the crater. It then begun to get so bright until Kirath cried out in surprise and covered his eyes. Even though he'd obviously been squinting, I could make out two other flyers, probably Predacon ones, in the background.

The came the energon explosion that knocked the others out of the sky. Kirath's view spun wildly, but he astonishingly pushed on and instead flew closer until we could see a figure standing inside the crater.

It was a huge transformer, which seemed to have something like a crustacean as a beast mode. Laughing like a lunatic, he grasped on to a blue sphere about the size of his fist. Anything he was saying was indecipherable, except for the word 'power'. Next to him was a stasis pod, marked with a huge 'X'.

"By the matrix!" Kirath exclaimed. "An alien device! But who is that?!"

The figure then looked towards Kirath, brandishing a huge cannon. I grimaced, knowing what was going to happen. Kirath screamed as a blue burst of energy hit him.

The screen started spinning, and then went dark.

"Such ... malice I sense in that being." Silverbolt commented. "Just who or what was he?"

"The dark secret of the Axalon's journey." I said grimly, causing all heads to turn towards me. "Don't look at me. Ask your commander about that."

"An experiment to replicate Starscream's mutant indestructible spark." Optimus spoke. "One that should never have been attempted."

"It failed, with disastrous results." Rhinox added in. "Our purpose was to dump it on some far off planet where it could bring no harm to anyone. Unfortunately, when our ship was damaged in the battle, his pod was jettisoned with all the others."

"So now, it means there's a complete lunatic on the loose?" Syndrea asked.

"And one possessing a potentially powerful weapon, as we've clearly seen." Dinobot scowled. "Not very promising."

"Rattrap is keeping an eye on the Predacon Base, just in case they get into this." Optimus said. "He's got strict orders not to engage and to report back the moment he finds anything."

The ship's com-link hissed.

"Hello? Hey guys, I think there's something happening here." Rattrap's voice came from the other end. "One thing is, the Pred's shields are completely down!"

Everyone looked up with interest.

"Continue." Optimus told him.

"Well, listen to this." There was some hissing as Rattrap tuned his com-link to one of his gadgets. What it did was allow the rest of us to hear exactly what was going on in the base. To be particular, the Predacon command room.

"You dare attack me?!" It was Megatron's loud, booming voice.

There were the sounds of laser weapons being fired.

"Mwahahahahahahahahahaha!" A raspy, evil voice laughed loudly. "You fools! I am invincible! Immortal! Imbued with the powers of the aliens! Now you shall feel wraith of Rampage!!"

The deafening, lightning-like sound after that nearly drowned out all the screams. For a while, no one said anything. Everything was somehow trying to contemplate the fact that a completely insane maniac had gotten hold of an alien weapon of unknown power. And he'd just taken out our worst enemy.

"Guys, I think we have a problem!" Rattrap finally broke the silence.

"This is a disastrous turn of events." Dinobot growled.

"What?! Megs being scrapped?!"

"He's referring to us cheese-lips!" Calico yelled into the com-link. "Cause where do you think he's going once he slags the rest of the Preds?"

"Oh boy." Rattrap sighed. "We're all gonna ... "

"SHUT UP RATTRAP!" Everybody screamed.

"Maximals," Optimus Primal spoke. "This foe may be more dangerous than all the Predacons put together. Which is why we must defeat him immediately."

"Excuse me," Rattrap said over the com-link. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if he just vappd old Megs, what do you think he's gonna do to us?!"

"Does our opponent have a weak point we may strike at?" Silverbolt asked.

"His spark." Rhinox replied. "As we said, the experiment wasn't successful, so in theory his spark can be destroyed by a sharp energon weapon."

"Getting close enough to actually use a blade on him may prove to be the problem." Airazor noted.

"Who said anything about getting close?"

Everyone stared towards Optimus as he spoke.

"Why do you mean?" Calico asked.

"We have someone amongst our ranks with a reputation as a one-shot-kill sniper." He explained. "And supposedly the best."

That was referring to me, of course. I looked up as all heads turned in my direction.

"So, you really want me to do it?" I growled.

Optimus slowly nodded.

"I'll need my bullets back then. You know, those ones."

"You'll have them." Optimus replied. "Go prepare your weapon. I'll brief the others, then we're moving out immediately, to strike while their shields are still down."

I turned and walked down the corridor, ignoring the chattering voices. There was a clanging of footsteps as Syndrea came running after me.

"Wait!" She called, chasing me into my quarters. "This has something to do with your Predacon past, doesn't it?"

"Indeed." I opened the locker and searched through it until I came up with a large, black suitcase. Snapping it open, I pulled out the various parts and begun putting them together.

"Nightfire." Rhinox appeared at the doorway and tossed me a small pack of 4 bullets. "We'll be waiting in the control room."

He then strode off, leaving Syndrea silently watching me as I held up my personal sniper rifle.

"This is what's known as Zero Wing's .338 Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle." I explained. "There aren't too popular as they're considered the 'daredevil's sniper'. Want to know why?"

That had been a pretty unnecessary question, but Syndrea nodded anyway.

"It can only be loaded with a single round. You miss and you have to shove a new shell in, provided you live long enough to do so. However, this rifle is the only one capable of holding the rounds I designed myself. Energon-based Magnum Spikes."

"Magnum Spikes are one of the better piercing round available." Syndrea commented.

"I modified them to my needs by replacing the charge within with energon and coating the casing with an energon layer." I said, holding up the rifle and testing the scope. "When targeted at a victim's spark, it will fatally damage it, provided it doesn't extinguish the spark outright."

"And this was how you killed then." Syndrea finished.

"I still hear their screams in my nightmares." I muttered, closing my eyes. "The pain and anguish as their sparks evaporated into nothingness. I never wanted to kill this way again."

"Nightfire ... "

"But now, I have no choice." I said, chambering one of the bullets. There was a familiar click as it slid into place. "Cry havoc, for the dragon of war is set loose."

Syndrea and I didn't speak as we headed back to the control room. Everyone was waiting as I boldly stepped into the room and swung the rifle over my shoulder.

"Are you prepared then?" Optimus asked.

"As me commanding officer, you have to give the order."

"Then, shoot and terminate." Optimus said grimly.

"Yes sir." I saluted.

* * *

I felt that it was a taste of old times. In expression of course, because it didn't really happen a long time ago.

I stepped through the ventilation shaft and positioned myself on a platform overlooking the Predacon control room. I tested the section of the catwalk and after making sure it held my weight, gave a thumbs-up to Calico and Dinobot, who were watching my back. Dinobot had been rather sore about sneaking around the base, but I guessed even he understood the necessity this time.

With the base's shields and defenses down, getting in had been a snap. Optimus, Rhinox and Rattrap would approach on the lower level from one side, Silverbolt, Tigatron and Airazor on the other. Syndrea had stayed back at base to bring Cheetor and Kirath once they were battle capable again.

It was a simple plan really. I was to hit our bot, Rampage, destroying or as least severely damaging him, and allowing the others to sweep in and finish him off, along with the other Preds. Now that I got a fairly good look at him, I noted that he was some kind of Transmetal Crab.

Our scans had shown all functional Preds in the base were there in the 'throne room'. Rampage was seated on Megatron's throne, giving some deranged speech to the Predacons gathered before him.

Blackarachnia, Tarantulas, Waspinator, Terrorsaur, and Quickstrike. It seemed Megatron had been scrapped good, along with his loyal drone, Inferno. Unfortunately, that left Deathwing, Shadowflare and Muricate all as MIA (missing in action).

Still, I had my mission. Calico nodded to me, indicating that the others were in place.

I lay down on my chest and took aim. There was no hurry and certainly very little danger, considering how much the guy was rambling. I could sense a powerful spark within his shell, which practically made a bull's-eye on his chest.

_This is too easy. _I thought.

Perhaps if I hadn't been so busy thinking about how I'd get a whole lot of praise after the mission, I would've noticed the supporting bolts of my platform slowly coming lose. Calico called out a warning, but it was too late.

Fate had intervened.

The shot went wide and I hit the platform below, losing my rifle ... and alerting every Predacon to my presence.

I silently swore as every weapon was trained on me. Dinobot and Calico stood up and begun firing down at the Preds below. At the same time, the other Maximals charged into the room, guns blazing.

Pure hell broke loose and screams and laser bursts filled the room. I took the opportunity to leapt down and grab my sniper rifle from the platform below. Rampage had himself in the open, gleefully firing off a huge rocket launcher. I saw a piece of shrapnel hit Airazor's wing and she retreated out of the room after the others insisted on it.

I was pulling a bullet out of the pack when a stray shot hit my hand, causing me to drop the entire box.

"Rargh! NO! Dammit!" The box disappeared into the lava below. At that moment, every single curse word I knew was running through my mind.

Then, I felt a great source of energy building up. Rampage was raising that blue alien orb, oblivious to the shots being fired. Abandoning the rifle, I flew back up to where Dinobot and Calico were.

"What the?!" Calico gasped.

"What in the pit is he doing?!" Dinobot growled.

"RUN!" I roared, not having time to explain myself. Not waiting for a response, I took off down the shaft. I heard the clanging of the footsteps as the pair decided to follow me. That was when I heard, as much as felt the explosion. An energon detonation that was literally tearing the base apart.

Ignoring everything else, I ran.

But that didn't mean I couldn't hear the screams of both Maximal and Preadcon alike who were still there, falling victim to the lunatic's madness.

The worse part was, it was harder to block out the screams in my mind.

* * *

"What in the name of Primus happened?!" Syndrea yelled as the four of us stumbled back into the base.

It must've been a shock to her, not only seeing our damaged and charred robot forms, but the fact that only Calico, Dinobot and myself came back. Airazor had barely gotten out of the Predacon base in time and we'd dragged her back with us.

Cheetor and Kirath were equally astonished.

"The Pred base ... went up in one big bang." Airazor panted.

"That maniac ... " Calico growled.

"I'm never seen that kind of power." I said, leaning on Syndrea for support. "It was utterly overwhelming."

"But ... what happened to big-bot and the others?" Cheetor asked.

None of the four of us wanted to answer that.

"Nightfire, you can sense it, can't you?" Kirath demanded. "Tell us!"

"That monster ... the explosion ... " I struggled to find my words. I really wanted to try and tell them something comforting, but my senses never lied. I had tried to reach out to each one of the others and had come up with nothing. "They were in there."

Calico sadly shook her head.

"NO ... " Cheetor muttered. "This ... can't be."

"Whatever it is, I believe we'll be joining them shortly." Dinobot said. "The scanners."

Even as Kirath activated the monitor, I knew what he was seeing. A single unit in a straight march towards us, literally tearing down everything in his path.

_The grim reaper comes to life. _I thought, gritting my teeth.

"Sentinel, all weapon systems online." Kirath ordered.

Even as he did, the look on his face was grim. The general was realizing the severity of the situation. Then, that single figure marched into our view. All the guns went crazy, only to have their shots bounce off some sort of invisible shield.

"Primus, it's not having any effect." He gasped. "We may have only one other option. To retreat."

"And abandon base?" Dinobot protested.

"Would you rather stay and die?!" Calico yelled.

"The power ... it's truly alien." Syndrea muttered.

"Alien ... " I muttered. "Syndrea! Get the alien's golden disc form the computer!"

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

Syndrea did so, slipping the disc into her subspace pocket. Kirath was setting the defenses to keep firing.

"But the only way out is through the back." Airazor realized. "And that leads up the mountain."

"No, there's another way." I growled. Everyone followed me as I led them to the central corridor and blew a hole in the floor with my rifle. That revealed the river, way down below.

"My wings are too damaged to be of any use." Airazor said. "Kirath and Cheetor couldn't carry all of us between them either!"

"Jump." I commanded.

"WHAT?! Are you insane!?" Dinobot yelled.

"Better than being dead." I argued. "Syndrea?"

"I'll manage." She said clutching onto me. "I'll go with you, no matter what."

"Good. Then hold on!"

I closed my eyes, then leapt through the hole, plunging to the raging river below. One by one, the surviving Maximals did the same.

What followed was the second huge explosion I'd been in contact with in those matter of cycles. Only this one was of our base. I'd swear I could hear the hideous laughter of the monster called Rampage, from high up above, taking great pride in having caused all this destruction.

_My dream ... as Sky Lynx ... was he ... the one? _

Plunging into the cold, raging waters cut off the rest of my thoughts.

* * *

"I'm sorry Sky Lynx." Rodimus said sadly. "I promised I'd come back, but I couldn't save you."

_Rodimus? _I wondered. _What's going on? _

"But you took them out. Every single one by yourself. Our sensors showed their ships detonating along with a large portion of the planet. That's a huge accomplishment you should be proud of, through you may never know it."

_I ... what? _

Then the image came back into my mind. That dark figure, and the plasma cannon aimed down at my head. But the scene in front of me didn't make sense. I was standing right there, looking into Rodimus' face, as well as all the other Autobots gathered behind him.

"We'll never know who they were now, but hopefully they're gone for good."

Gone? What was that he'd told me?!

"NO!" I screamed. "It's a trick! They've played you out and retreated until superior stealth technology! Rodimus!"

I was utterly shocked when no sound came out.

_The cannon! How had I survived that!? What was I doing here?! _

That was when it hit me. I was dead. I turned and looked over the body of my familiar dinobird mode, only it shimmered with a light blue color. I was partially translucent and I could actually see through myself.

"Rodimus, we should take his remains back to Cybertron to be cremated." Someone from the crowd said. I just couldn't be bothered to rack my mind for whose voice it was.

"Such a shame. Now he'll never get that surprise upgrade we'd been planning for him." Another voice said.

Rodimus only nodded sadly.

"All right, let's go."

"Looks like you'll be honored after all." A reverberating voice came from behind.

I spun round and suddenly noticed I was standing on some astral background. It was like a tunnel made out of multicolored lights against the starry background. At the end of the tunnel was a bright, white light.

I squinted as the light approached me.

"Who are you? And where it this?" I asked.

"I believe you already know the answer." The voice said.

"The All-spark." I muttered. "The matrix of the after life, where all sparks go once their journeys of life are complete."

I wasn't one to really believe in these things, but now that I was seeing it for myself, there was no way to deny it.

"But you still feel incomplete. You're missing something ... "

"Yes!" I blurted out. "That battle! If I could only do it over, just once more, I wouldn't be ... "

"But you cannot. Time gone by is unchangeable."

"Then why tell me all this?" I asked, stepping forward.

"Because your journey is not complete. You thoughts betray you."

"I don't understand."

"You will have another chance, but as another."

I saw a glowing sphere rise in front of me. It was my own spark, shimmering brightly in its blue light. I was suddenly hit by a series of visions. In them, I saw the new transformer I would become.

It was the time traveler I'd fought alongside so long ago. He was supposedly from a time coming and I realized now that he and I were one. When he'd temporarily switched our bodies, it had left an unseen bond that linked our fates. I saw also, the other things he'd neglected to tell us.

"NO!" I cried when I realized it. "How can you make me this Predacon?! I don't deserve this!"

"The choice is not yours to make. It is ... destiny."

I attempted to spring forward, but an invisible force struck me, showing me back. I felt myself falling. The lights of the Matrix were fading away.

"You will remember nothing of this." The disembodied voice echoed in my mind. "It is the way it must be ... "

Unable to fight it any longer, I gave myself up to the darkness.

Sky Lynx was no more ...

* * *

"Gurgh!" This time, I managed to prevent myself from screaming out loud.

_So, that was what happened to Sky Lynx. To me. _

But I still shot up, staring around the area.

Our ragtag group had wandered around until we'd found this cavern to take shelter in. Outside, a huge thunderstorm was pouring down over the landscape. Exhausted, everyone lay, in beast mode, fast asleep.

Syndrea, Cheetor and Kirath were relatively clean, not having been in that earlier battle. Dinobot and Calico were only slightly charred by the blasts. Airzor's left wing, however, had been pierced by shrapnel and was unusable. My wings were generally all right, but I'd been in a state of shock and had been unable to use them earlier on.

I'd patched whatever minor injuries I could, but our situation was certainly in the extreme. Our base was gone and many of our troops lost. I still didn't know how the others were taking it, since I'd never really been that close to the group.

And there was a psychopath on our tails, intend on hunting us down like animals. Well, real animals that was.

"Nightfire?" Syndrea asked, getting up. "What is it?"

Growling, I abruptly sprang past her, drew my sword and slammed the approaching figure into the wall.

"Now, you're at an unfair advantage here because I can't use my weapon in beast mode." Deathwing said as I held my sword to his throat.

Shadowflare and Muricate, also in beast mode, appeared at the cavern's entrance and immediately hesitated at the glares of the awakening Maximals.

"Deathwing, you've got 10 nano-clicks to explain yourself before I turn you into chicken stew!"

"You wouldn't want to do that in this situation." Deathwing calmly replied. "Not while we face a common enemy, at least."

"Then you're not with that monster of a transformer?!" Kirath demanded.

"We were pretty much running for our lives." Muricate insisted.

"Remember how that energon blast knocked us out of the sky?" Deathwing addressed Kirath. "Well that Rampage figure came barging down and demanding us to take him to our base. I knew something was seriously wrong with him, so I split and these two happened to have the sense to come along."

"He held Blackarachnia at gunpoint and forced her to show him the way." Shadowflare told us. "In my humble opinion, a fatal mistake on her part."

"We figured as much." Kirath nodded. "So, what are you doing here?"

"To put it shortly, for an alliance." Deathwing said. "It would be mutually beneficial for both our parties, provided any of us survive to benefit from it."

"Can we really trust them?" Cheetor asked. "Something stinks about this."

"Under normal circumstance, I would have to agree." Dinobot said. "But in this predicament, the victor would merely await a far worse means of death."

"Well general, what do you think?" I asked Kirath.

"Why ask me?"

"Because you're the general, and probably the only one in a position to command this motley crew."

Dinobot was about to protest, but Calico gave him a ferocious growl, which basically meant 'shut up or I'll make you'.

"All right." Kirath nodded. "If the Predacons accept these terms ... "

"We will." Deathwing spoke.

"We have an alliance then."

I reluctantly withdrew my sword.

"In my humble opinion, we should also be discussing our business here." Shadowflare spoke. "The device in question is of alien design and I believe the alien disc was in your possession."

"Hope you remembered to bring it along." Deathwing muttered.

Syndrea gave him a nasty stare and pulled it out.

"But we aren't giving it to you." She growled.

"No, no. Nightfire is the one who should be using it, am I right?"

"Yes, give it to me." I said.

I carefully took the delicate disc in my claws and placed the 'palm' of my claw to it. Closing my eyes, I focused.

"What are you doing?" Syndrea asked.

"He's using his psychic powers to search through the disc, much like a computer scan would." Deathwing explained. "And I believe he's looking for any information that could aid us."

It was a very strange experience on my part. I saw myself seemingly floating through space.

Like there was a lock and I was trying to break the code with my mind. I pushed my mind deeper, searching for something, anything that would give us a chance. One moment, I was flying through a pathway of multicolored lights and then the information suddenly hit me.

"The Compelling Orb." I gasped, stumbling back into Syndrea's arms. "An artifact that grants unspeakable power to the one who holds it. It was supposedly sealed away, but the incredible malice and madness in Rampage's spark seemed to have reacted with that somehow, giving him the powers, but driving him further into insanity. Only when his insane desires will it destroy him from within."

No one said a word as I spoke.

"But it has a hidden power, an ability to travel through time and if he unlocks it somehow ... "

"Primus help us all." Kirath whispered.

_Time travel._ I thought. _If I could get hold of it, could I change my destiny? _

Syndrea was looking over towards me. She knew I was deep in thought, just not about what.


	10. The Extreme, Pt 3: Crisis

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**The Extreme, Part 3: Crisis**

By nightdragon0

While the others managed to get some rest, through more out of pure exhaustion than anything else, Nightfire found himself staring at the ceiling. The thought just kept coming back to his mind.

_Can destiny truly be altered? _He thought. _Could I stop myself from standing on that faulty platform and missing that shot? But wait… _

Pulling himself up, he looked out of the cavern's entrance, up to the stars above. They still shone brightly, even through there was a downpour outside.

_Why limit myself to just that? Time is limitless, isn't it? Why not go back further…and…and stop myself from dying at all. If Sky Lynx had lived…if I had lived…where would I be now? A great Maximal commander. At least more than this… _

Nightfire turned towards Deathwing's sleeping form and snorted with disgust. His archenemy in such close quarters…and not being to do anything about it.

If Deathwing slept at all, Nightfire knew it was with one eye open. The dragon had learnt the trick from Deathwing himself. There had been a time either one of the two would've been willing to give up their lives for one another…but that was in the past.

One he now had a chance to completely leave behind. If only…

Then, his gaze fell upon another figure.

_Syndrea...love can be a great burden. If I had to leave this timeline then…perhaps it's for the better. _

Something sprang into his mind. Nightfire cursed himself, realizing he should've been paying more attention to their current situation instead.

"Get up now! Everyone!" He roared.

"What is it?!" Kirath asked, over the astonished gasps.

"He's coming." Nightfire muttered. "I can feel it. We have to get out of here, now!"

It needn't have been asked what the dragon meant by 'he'. For the next instant, a loud explosion shook the cavern.

"Head North." Nightfire said, transforming and drawing his Energon blade. "Trust me on this one."

Without waiting for a response, he dashed out of the cave and into the pouring rain. Nightfire tensed upon seeing nothing. However, he noticed something else.

The ground was hot. And the rain coming down was causing steam to form. Lots of it too, making it somewhat difficult to see. Cheetor approached from behind, weapon ready.

"You'll need help if you're going to hold him off." He insisted.

"Damn, why do you have to be so stubborn?!"

Too late, a series of energy bursts came towards them. Nightfire swung his sword, deflecting the shots. Cheetor unleashed his Quasar blasters in the general direction of the enemy.

Or so they thought. As they backed away, a loud growl came from the trees above them. Nightfire was swift enough to dive out of the way. Cheetor however, wasn't as fortunate to avoid the huge, pouncing shape.

"RRaaggrrhhhh!"

"NO!" Nightfire roared, seeing his comrade being mauled by a gigantic crab. He fired his rifle, which did little more than dent the creature's heavily armored back.

Nightfire saw a blue flash that was almost like the one emitted by a spark. He then realized that its victim had stopped screaming now and was no longer moving.

Nightfire fired his weapon in fury, just as the Transmetal crab was turning towards him. One of the shots hit its chest area as the crab was raising its body.

The crab, Rampage, gave a gurgle of pain.

The sounds of gunfire sounded as the other Beast Warriors joined in, firing their weapons.

"Run!" Nightfire yelled, pulling out a flashbang tossing it.

Fortunately, this time the others heeded his advice.

* * *

"Why didn't you save him?!" Airzor screamed, furiously shaking Nightfire by his shoulders.

"I did everything I could."

"That's no excuse!"

"Airazor…calm down." Syndrea gently pulled the falcon away.

"I…I…I'm sorry." She muttered, staring at the ground.

"Whatever it is, this doesn't change the situation at all." Deathwing said.

"No, that's where you're wrong." Kirath spoke. "You all saw how he seemed to be hurt when some of us hit his chest area, didn't you?"

"In my humble opinion, that's because he keeps the alien artifact there." Shadowflare nodded. "It seems he does have a weak point."

"So what? We're supposed to blow him up by blasting that open?" Calico asked.

"No. Getting the artifact away from him is the true objective." Dinobot replied.

"Exactly." Kirath nodded. "We'll need to distract him somehow…"

The green transformer's gaze turned as he faced a rocky bridge. The area the group had retreated to comprised of 2 walls of a canyon connected by a single bridge in the center. Kirath looked down and guessed it lead at least 70 feet down to the waters below.

"You have a plan?" Deathwing queried.

"Possibly. See the bridge there? We'll position ourselves on either side and remain hidden. Then, we have someone lure him onto the bridge. We hit his weak spots, and blow out the bridge. Then the bait will get the artifact out of him during the fall. Seeing Rampage doesn't have flying capabilities, it should distract him sufficiently."

"And that's supposed to be called a plan?!"

"Well, if you have any other suggestions, I'm open to them."

"Fine…but that's still a great risk on the chosen one's part."

"At most, he'll just be going offline a little earlier than the rest of us." Kirath said grimly. "I'll do it."

"Negative, you must coordinate the shooters. Leave this to someone with superior skills on close combat." Dinobot snorted.

"And tell me how you're going to fly away when the bridge is blown out?" Calico blurted out.

Dinobot snarled but Calico reached up and grabbed him by his neck.

"It's for you own good, Mr. high and mighty. Deal with it!"

"Airazor's wing is damaged, so that leaves the two of you." Muricate gestured towards Nightfire and Deathwing.

_I couldn't have asked for a more perfect chance! _

"I'll do it!" Both Nightfire and Deathwing shot out at once, then stared and growled at each other.

"Wow, I've never seen you two so enthusiastic to die." Syndrea commented.

"Under normal circumstances, I'd challenge you to a duel for that." Deathwing muttered.

"It's only going to turn out like it did last time, with the bridge." Nightfire said under his breath.

His rival however, still heard and threw a punch towards him. Nightfire stepped to the side and caught his hand, pulling both down to the ground. A fierce punching match started which the others had to break up.

"Stop it you two!" Kirath yelled angrily. "Put your differences aside, at least for now."

"We'll both attack then." Deathwing decided. "Two fighters will have a better chance than one."

"Agreed." Nightfire muttered reluctantly. He turned and walked off into the forest. "I'm going to get prepared. The rest of you should too."

Syndrea nodded to the group, and then ran after him. Meanwhile, Deathwing had taken off in the opposite direction. Muricate dashed up to the vulture and tapped his shoulder. Deathwing hesitated slightly, but he gave a gesture of approval and allowed her to follow.

"Is it just me, or is there some great resemblance between those two." Calico said as the two departed.

"Perhaps." Kirath agreed, looking down at the golden alien disc he held. "But there'll be a time for that later. Hopefully at least. Come on, we should get into position."

Shadowflare stood slightly off to the side. The Black Panther looked towards the sky, deep in thought.

* * *

"And this stuff is?" Muricate was asking.

"A liquefied Energon mixture." Deathwing replied. "I always keep a canister hidden in my Gunblade."

The hole he'd dug in the ground was filled with the glowing blue liquid.

"What is its purpose?"

"Any transformer, no matter how powerful, is always vulnerable when its spark is attacked. When working with melee weapons, it's good to coat them with this first. As such, they'll inflict much more damage if you strike properly."

Deathwing dipped his Gunblade in and used his hand to rub some liquid over the higher parts of his weapon.

"You should dip your claws and daggers in too."

Muricate nodded and did as she was told.

"You seem to have quite a bit of respect for me. That's not very common unless you're a mindless drone."

"Erm…well…I…you see…" Muricate was caught aback.

"I do notice these things, my feline friend." Deathwing laughed. "Hmmm…it's been a while since I've had a partner-in-crime. Through I certainly didn't expect it would be a transformer created from the spirit of a wild animal."

"You know all about me, but I know nothing of you."

"Curious aren't you? Well, what would you like to know?"

"It's about you and Nightfire…"

* * *

Meanwhile, Nightfire was replicating the exact same procedure with the liquefied Energon on the other side of the forest.

"Attacking the spark?" Syndrea asked. "That seems like a logical response."

"Indeed." He nodded. "Although these are already Energon weapons, and such we can't let them soak up too much."

As the dragon pulled his sword out of the liquid filled pit, its green blade glowed more brightly. Syndrea did the same and found her own sword a much more brilliant shade of blue.

"I've got to do a little more." Nightfire said, dipping his claws in as well.

He was in beast mode, and lowered his dragon head into the liquid.

"You're drinking it?!" Syndrea gasped.

"No, just coating my fangs with it." He replied, lifting his head. "And my tail too. You'll never know when you'll be forced into a beast brawl."

Syndrea nodded, but she turned her had slightly to the side, as if hesitant to ask something.

"What's bothering you?"

"You and Deathwing. There's something between you two."

"We were former comrades turned archenemies. That's all."

"No, it's not." Syndrea grabbed his shoulder. "There's more on the rivalry part than what you're telling me."

"Nightfire!"

"Its sibling rivalry, gone way too far."

"Wait…so that means…"

"Yes, Deathwing is my brother." Nightfire gritted his teeth, glaring at the floor. "It was just us, alone on the streets of Cybertron. Just a couple of simple thieves. Nothing much until that time we tried to steal from this terrorist organization. We were caught, but I guess the leader saw some potential in us. They offered to train us, on the condition that we'd serve them for life. And there was no better choice then."

"The dreams I had…" Syndrea asked. "…back when you were in the sword. They were?"

"Yes. You told me you heard the name Bladewing. That was what he was called back then."

"But what happened?"

"You see, both of us were extraordinary and excelled in what we did. We were considered prodigies. And sometimes, we competed for jobs and missions. It started out as a 'casual' thing, but over time it turned really nasty. We soon stopped talking to each other. Then came the time when a certain, famous criminal came. Guess who?"

"Megatron."

"Indeed. He had his plans to steal the golden discs and wanted to recruit only the better of the two of us. It was decided we'd have a sniper duel, winner takes all. Let me ask you, do you remember the Seranus Sector bridge incident?"

"Yeah, it was the one where some terrorists blew out the top bridge, sending it crashing down onto the other four below."

"And I was that terrorist."

"What?!"

"I didn't think I could beat Deathwing in the duel back then. So I instead blew out the supports of the bridge, whilst he was on it. Many died, but I got the job from Megatron. I thought Deathwing was dead too…however, I was mistaken. And you know the rest, how I quit and tired to run soon after. But I choose the wrong ship to get onto."

"Perhaps, but…"

"Forget it. If I hadn't missed that shot, we wouldn't be in this mess." Nightfire shook his head, quite clearly trying to change the subject. "At least we had the alien disc to get the information from and…DAMMIT! THE DISC!"

"Huh?! What about it?" Syndrea started, having to chase after the dragon as he took off in a mad dash.

"The disc and the orb…both of the same alien origin." Nightfire explained hastily. "I just realized they might be connected, like a tracking device. That's possibly how he found us before!"

"Kirath took the disc, I think." Syndrea said. "Then he might be in trouble!"

"Why do you think I'm running like this?!" Nightfire panted. "It's a bad feeling. But as always, my bad feelings usually turn out to be right…"

* * *

"I know how to work my weapons, thank you very much." Calico growled.

"No, they're not configured to make the maximum usage of the limited energy supplies we have." Dinobot snarled.

"What?!"

"You need power, not speed in this situation. Rapid firing of weaker shots will not be of much effect."

"Fine, fine." Calico wasn't pleased at being beaten, but she complied, adjusting several controls at the sides of her Uzis.

"In my humble opinion, if the happy couple is done arguing, can we get into position?" Shadowflare called from the other side of the bridge.

"Shut up!" Both yelled simultaneously.

Airazor managed a weary smile.

"Hey…" Nightfire barged onto the scene, on the side of Calico and Dinobot's positions. "Where's…where's Kirath?"

"He's just a little further ahead over there." Calico pointed as Syndrea returned as well.

"Got to warn him…" The dragon gasped. "About…the…"

Gunfire rang out, abruptly followed by a scream.

"Kirath! No! Dammit!" Nightfire yelled.

There were other sounds of yelling as Deathwing and Muricate came into view. Both were in robot mode and firing away. Deathwing had the golden disc clutched under his arm.

"He's coming!" Deathwing warned.

"Syndrea, here!" Nightfire shoved his Rail Cannon into her arms. "Better take that and hide."

The female velociraptor nodded and scrambled into position beside Calico. Muricate was doing the same on Dinbot's side. Shadowflare and Airazor were already prepared on the spots across the bridge.

"He wants the disc." Nightfire said, transforming as he stepped up to Deathwing's.

"I figured that part out myself." The vulture muttered. "And here he is now."

The huge Transmetal Rampage shoved dozens of trees down as he approached, letting off a scream that could neither be described as animal or Cybertronian.

"You want it mother f#r?!" Deathwing yelled. "Come get it!"

And for the first time in a long while, both he and Nightfire unleashed their firepower on a common foe and not upon each other.

Rampage roared as the shots hit him in all places, but he kept advancing…just as the plan was supposed to go. The pair continued backing away until both they and Rampage were standing on the rocky bridge.

"Now! Just fire now!" Nightfire yelled.

Shots erupted as the hidden Maximals and Predacons sprang from their hiding places. Calico's Uzis, Dinobot's eyebeams, Shadowflare's bowgun bolts, Muricate's shotgun and Airazor's missiles all joined in the fray.

Howling, Rampage used his arms to block his chest. Unfortunately, his tactic was working. Airazor's missiles were soon depleted and Calico was shaking her weapons in frustration. Their ammunition would run out long before they'd be able to do any significant damage to him at all.

_Bad…very bad! _Nightfire realized.

Then he saw Syndrea shoving his Rail Cannon into position. She was ready to take a shot, but she was located behind Rampage and in no position to hit his chest. Unless…

(When I give you the word, ignore everything and just shoot.) He sent a telepathic message. Nightfire just hoped that she'd listen.

"Hey you!" Nightfire transformed into his dragon mode and charged, ignoring the fact that his comrades were still firing.

"What in the pit are you doing?!" Deathwing yelled after him.

With a roar, Nightfire leapt up, slashed at Rampage's face and flipped over behind him. As expected, the huge Transmetal spun round. Giving Syndrea a prefect shot.

(NOW!)

Syndrea hit the button on the cannon and gasped as the recoil threw her backwards. Time seemed to slow down as a blue beam emerged from the weapon, heading straight for Nightfire and Rampage. At the last instant, Nightfire spread his legs and dropped as low as he could. However, he still felt the surge of energy scorching his back as well as heard the deafening explosion.

The scream of pain mingled into that was an indicator that there was no time to waste. In one swift motion, Nightfire whirled around, drew his sword and swung. The brilliant green blade ripped into Rampage's chestplate, tearing part of it off. Beneath was the glowing blue orb.

His goal in sight, Nightfire reached for it. However, his opponent wasn't completely disabled yet and the dragon found himself grabbed by the neck. Rampage had his missile launcher in the other hand, ready to make scrap metal out of Nightfire.

Deathwing fired at the bridge, blowing it out. Rampage let out a gurgled scream as he plummeted, dragging Nightfire down with him. The crab's missile launcher was firing wildly as he fell.

Shadowflare and Airazor were fortunate enough to be on the opposite side the missiles hit, but Calico was knocked off the cliff.

Panicked, she screamed and failed to grasp onto the side. Dinobot immediately reverted to beast mode and went down after her.

Meanwhile, Nightfire's world was spinning as he wrestled for the orb in mid-air. His crazed opponent simply would not give it up. The dragon realized the river was a fast flowing one only moments before both of them plunged into it.

* * *

"Nightfire!" Syndrea cried upon seeing the splash.

"Did he get the orb?" Muricate wondered.

"I don't care if he did or not!" Syndrea went back to beast mode and took several steps backwards.

"What are you…"

With a graceful dive, Syndrea leapt down into the raging waters below.

"…doing…" Muricate finished, stunned.

"Urrgghh…" Deathwing moaned. The soldier was lying on the opposite side of the bridge, groaning and holding his chest.

"Oh no!" Muricate jumped across and ran to his side. "Deathwing? Are you OK?"

"I just ate one of the bastard's missiles. Do I look OK?"

"I noticed." Muricate said softly. "But do you think…"

"Yeah…I hate to admit it, but Nightfire's going to have to pull this one off by himself." Deathwing sighed.

Shadowflare came walking up beside them.

"Where'd the other Maximals go?" Deathwing queried.

"After the fox." The panther replied. "But in my humble opinion, I feel we should follow Nightfire."

"No need." Deathwing let off a slight grin. "I have a feeling I know what he's going to have to do…"

* * *

One moment air, one moment none. In addition to the constant struggle for the orb, it was quickly wearing Nightfire down.

_Arugh! Why couldn't I have been a water dragon?! _

Suddenly, Rampage hit him…really hard. So much that he went flying out of the water. Nightfire cried out in pain as he slammed the ground hard. Apparently he'd landed on a small patch of land.

There wasn't even enough time for him to get into robot mode before he screamed again. Rampage was up as well and had stomped onto his back. Nightfire clawed wildly, only to be grabbed by his neck.

The dragon gasped under the vice-like grip, his systems screaming at a critical level. In desperation, he slashed across Rampage's face, doing nothing more than leaving a scratch.

Rampage growled menacingly and lifted his free right arm. The Transmetal simply twisted and ripped Nightfire's right arm out of its socket.

"RRRAAARRGGHH!"

"It hurts, doesn't it? Good!"

Nightfire swung his remaining claw, only to have his left arm caught, and abruptly torn off in a spray of mech fluids. The dragon hadn't even felt the shock yet when his head was thrust into the ground. Both his wings were grabbed and ripped out.

It was already obvious that roaring in pain wasn't helping, but Nightfire's instincts were hard to control. The dragon felt as much as heard the slow twisting of his right leg, the creaking of the connecting parts, and finally the spray of fluids as the limb was ripped out. Already numb and in shock, Nightfire could do nothing to brace for the following agony of his left leg being torn off in a similar manner.

Finally, his tormentor braced his foot against the base of Nightfire's tail and yanked that off as well.

The pain was so extreme and yet the dragon had no strength left to scream. The limbless dragon could only watch and squirm as he was grabbed around the neck and brought up to face Rampage.

"Now, you can watch, as my spark consumes yours!" Rampage opened his chestplate, showing off not only the alien orb, but his own hideous spark as well.

Nightfire stared up into the means of his destruction.

Then, came a yell. It was Syndrea, leaping down from the cliff above and transforming in mid-leap. Her blue Energon blade blazed fiercely as she brought it down. It startled Rampage enough so that he hesitated and gave Syndrea time to drive the blade into his shoulder.

Rampage yelled in pain, letting go of Nightfire's neck. The dragon had been dismembered and greatly crippled, but he still had one weapon left…his Energon coated fangs!

With every ounce of strength left in his battered body, Nightfire clamped his jaws down, right onto Rampage's exposed spark. All at once, he was hit by both incredible pain and an indescribable roar of agony.

_Got to…hold on… _

Finally, the explosion came…and everything was still.


	11. The Extreme, Pt 4: Fate

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**The Extreme, Part 4: Fate**

By nightdragon0

Calico was abruptly stopped, just several feet above the water. Feeling a tearing pain in her left arm, Calico glanced up to see Dinobot standing on a ledge above her, with her arm grasped in the jaws of his velociraptor beast mode. His killer claws were pierced into the side of the stony walls, giving him some balance.

"Dinobot!" She cried. "Help me! I can't swim!"

Dinobot grunted, but of course couldn't reply with his mouth occupied.

_Do something, you blasted female! _Was what Dinobot would've yelled if he could've opened his mouth without letting go of her. And he was quite tempted to do just that.

"Calico! Dinobot!" Airazor called. She was further up, on top of the cliff.

Seeing that gave Calico an idea.

"Airazor! Catch this!" The fox called, tossing her one end of her whip.

However, the whip was too short and Airazor missed.

"Damn!" Calico pushed a switch, which extended the whip to its maximum length. "Hargh!"

This time the falcon managed to grab it.

"Hold on, I'll tie it to something!"

Calico's strength was fading rapidly and for a few fearful seconds, she was afraid she might lose hold. But then she felt the whip pull taunt.

"Dinobot, change positions."

Dinobot released her arm and Calico instead wrapped both her arms around his upper body. That got her an odd stare from the velociraptor.

"Don't grab the whip with those claws of yours dino boy." Calico advised. "And don't transform like this, it'll throw us both off. Just leave it to me."

Dinobot growled, but decided to keep his mouth shut for now.

Slowly and steadily, Calico pulled them both up. It took a great deal of her will and strength to keep going, but finally Airazor's welcoming arms pulled the pair up to safety.

Panting, both Calico and Dinobot collapsed.

"Thanks." Calico muttered. "Thanks for saving me."

Dinobot stood up and stared down at her. He had a hesitant look on his face, as if there was something he had to say but didn't want to.

It was a while before the soldier finally got it out.

"We…are even."

* * *

"Nightfire…" Still dazed from the blast, Syndrea pulled herself over to the dragon's side, ignoring the pain in her own body. "Say something, please!"

"Urrghh…" The limbless dragon groaned. "Ouch…"

"How are you feeling?"

"Rather…short of hands."

"Very funny." Syndrea managed a weak grin. "Damn, you're a mess."

"Don't remind me." Nightfire sighed, lifting his head to look over himself. "The orb?"

Syndrea stumbled over to the charred remains of Rampage and managed to pull it out, at long last.

"I have it."

"Good…" Nightfire chuckled. "Then, it's up to you now."

"Up to me?"

"Time travel. The power of the orb." Nightfire said softly.

"Something's wrong. It looks like its fading." Syndrea turned the blue orb around in her hands.

"Its power is rapidly diminishing." Nightfire explained. "Possibly it will only take you once. Which is why you must go now."

"But go where? And when? How do I make use of this?" She protested.

"You'll make better use of it than me." He replied. "Perhaps just as well that he tore my limbs off. You know, I had other plans for it…go back…for Sky Lynx."

"So that was it." Syndrea realized. "That was what you were thinking the whole time!"

"Yes…I did want to try and change…my destiny. I thought I had it weighed out…I though I could accept and make do with what losses I would have had. But…I realized…I couldn't lose you, Syndrea."

"Nightfire…"

"Go now. It's in your hands."

Syndrea looked down at the artifact she now held in her hands.

_Perhaps…yes, that's it! I can! _

Reaching down, she searched Nightfire's body and pulled out a couple of grenades.

"I'll be needing these."

"Just look into the orb and concentrate." Nightfire nodded. "That's how it works. Just call it intuition."

As Syndrea complied, a blue vortex seemed to swirl around her. The raptor felt herself being lifted up and up…higher and higher…

* * *

"Ugh!" Syndrea stumbled, landing on some rocky hard ground. "Wait, this is…"

She hoped at least that she'd gotten the correct mountain. Syndrea hadn't been near the mountain the day the incident happened, but she'd done some research to the mountain's location.

The orb in her arms glowed one last time and then shattered.

"No turning back now…"

Syndrea didn't know what time or day it was and her internal systems had been thrown off schedule, but she had to work quickly. The orb might not have had enough power to bring her back very far.

As the raptor now looked up, she realized this would be a long climb. Wasting no time, Syndrea took off running. It was a hard journey and she slipped several times, especially on the snow covered parts.

Syndrea was panting by the time she made it, however her finally stood proudly on top of the mountain which she believed the orb was hidden under.

Reaching it through all those feet of rock would be a tedious process, but she still had an alternative. Looking up, she scanned the surrounding mountains nearby, hoping with all her spark that she could find what she needed to.

"There!" Syndrea's heart jumped for joy.

There, trapped between several boulders, was the stasis pod belonging to none other than Rampage.

"Now…just got to time this right…"

Syndrea tossed the grenades, one after the other. The two explosions blew the stasis pod loose. Creaking, it slipped and fell, sliding down the snowy mountain. Syndrea watched as it landed with a splash in a river, way below in the valley. The raptor breathed a sigh of relief as the 'X' stasis pod drifted off to some place unknown.

"Huh?" Syndrea gasped, lifting her hands. They were flickering and seemed to be disappearing. "Yes…I've altered the time stream. So that means…"

The female velociraptor closed her eyes and let the process consume her.

* * *

"What the? Yargh!"

BAM!

Nightfire smacked right into the stony cliff side.

"Ow! Wait a sec, what am I doing here?" He gasped, peeling himself off the surface.

Last thing he remembered was lying by a streamside, dismembered and badly wounded. Then, all of a sudden, here he was, looking like a complete moron crashing into a wall.

"Syndrea, did you…of course!" Nightfire snapped.

He remembered now. The time he was trying this crazy stunt in this particular location was the day the others had first encountered Rampage and the alien orb. After his flying stunt, he'd gone back to his lair where Syndrea was repairing his communications relay. And that was where he'd had his dream.

"The orb!" Nightfire suddenly remembered.

As if on cue, his com-link beeped.

"Nightfire! The orb!" It was Syndrea.

"Yeah, I sort of figured that out."

"We've got to get to it!" She yelled.

"Right, I'll pick you up and you can explain along the way!"

* * *

"Hello? Nap time's over people!"

Dinobot groaned, awaking to the sound of Rattrap's annoying voice.

"What's with you two? Having a shared dream or something?"

Dinobot snapped up, jumping to his feet.

"Grrr…wait, you're here vermin!"

"Well duh! We went on patrol, remember?"

"Dinobot!" Calico came running over. "Dinobot, we're back…back here."

"Indeed. I can tell."

"Excuse me, am I missing something here?" Rattrap waved his arms.

"The orb!" Dinobot and Calico exclaimed simultaneously.

"The what? Hey! OW!"

The pair ploughed a confused Rattrap out of the way as they took off in a mad dash.

* * *

"Anyone in sight?" Syndrea asked from her position on the back of Nightfire's vehicle mode.

"Negative. I think we're here several cycles earlier than everyone was supposed to be in that alternate reality and…oh wait! It's Deathwing!"

"Looks like he's carrying Muricate on his back." Syndrea noted. "They must be trying to reach the orb!"

"It seems they have memories of that alternate timeline too." Nightfire growled.

"I think it has to do with those who 'survived' in that timeline." Syndrea thought. "We weren't 'really' there, because it didn't happen, but we remember it somewhat like a dream."

"Well, let's see how experienced Deathwing is at fighting with a passenger! Hold on tight Syndrea! I'm about to show you some high speed stunts!"

"Nightfire! NNNNNNNOOOOOOO!" Syndrea could only hold on and close her eyes.

Nightfire was charging and going really fast.

"I'm gonna be sssiiiiicccckkkkkkk!" Syndrea screamed.

"Hey bird brain!" Nightfire yelled, getting Deathwing's attention. "Charbroil!"

The dragon sent a huge burst of flame into his opponent's face, causing the vulture to screech in pain. He then doubled back and rammed Deathwing from beneath, sending him spinning and Muricate falling off with a scream.

"Syndrea, it's over."

"It is?" The female raptor asked meekly.

"And please stop strangling me too."

"Oh, sorry." Syndrea took her claws off his neck.

"Syndrea, fire my Rail Cannon." Nightfire ordered. "Into the mountain. Then I'll drop you off and you can get the orb while I distract Deathwing."

"OK, here goes!" Syndrea took hold of the cannon mounted on Nightfire's back and set its target lock. "Fire!"

The whole area shook as fragments of stone and dirt went flying.

"Cool, nice to see what that can do at full power. But now we'll have to hurry!" Nightfire swooped down towards the mountain.

"Hey! Get back here you cheapskate!" Deathwing, who had recovered, wasn't very happy at all.

"Go!"

"Hargh!" Syndrea leapt down, glad to be back on solid ground.

Whilst Nightfire turned back and begun breathing fire balls in Deathwing's direction, Syndrea carefully descended into the blown open hole. In spite of the slightly unstable ground, it really wasn't too difficult.

The light glow of the orb soon came into view and Syndrea followed it to its resting place, nicely nestled in a small pit of dirt.

"This is too easy…" The raptor muttered.

And just as soon as those words left her jaws, another figure pounced onto her.

* * *

Sparks and lights flashed as Nightfire and Deathwing clashed for the fifth time. The aerial battle was a mass of sword slashes, guards and kicks.

"Don't think that short alliance changed anything between us!" Deathwing growled. "It was in another timeline, after all."

"Indeed." Nightfire replied. "Which is why I have no compulsions about doing THIS!"

The dragon kicked his opponent between the legs. As Deathwing gawked in pain, Nightfire shoved him off and backed away.

"Grrrr…that's it!" Deathwing readied the bullets on his Gunblade.

Nightfire tossed his sword up, transformed into beast mode, and caught the weapon as it came down again. Deathwing started firing as Nightfire swooped down towards him, swinging his Energon blade to deflect the shots. Nightfire got around Deathwing and smacked him with a tail attack, followed by a burst of flame into the vulture's back.

"Ow! Ow! AAARRRRGGGHHHH! Damn you!" Deathwing swore as he fell out of the sky, his damaged flight systems unable to keep him in the air.

"Hahaha! Crispy fried!" Nightfire laughed. That was until he heard Syndrea's scream in his mind. "Syndrea!"

Turning and dropping into a steep dive, Nightfire headed back towards the mountain. He could see two figures struggling even before he got close.

Shadowflare had Syndrea, in beast mode, grasped by the neck with one arm, and the orb strapped by his side.

_Darn, forgot about him! _

"RRRRRooooaar…uurrgghhhh!"

A shot to his shoulder halted Nightfire in mid-flight. The dragon went crashing down, rolling hard in the snowy ground before coming to a stop. Shadowflare grinned evilly, his bowgun raised.

"Slag…when could he shoot like that?" Nightfire groaned, pulling himself up.

"It's always been one of my abilities. You merely assumed it wasn't." The panther spoke.

"Nightfire…I'm sorry!" Syndrea cried. "He's a better fighter than I thought!"

"What?" Nightfire growled. "You mean…the whole 'lousy shot' thing was all an act?"

"Well, the more stupid you act in front of people, the more surprised they'll be when you kill them." Shadowflare laughed. "Pity that didn't work back on the Hyperion."

"Hold on a sec! The Hyperion? You mean…" Nightfire shook his head. "The ghost ship with those zombies…"

"Pretty nice job, wasn't it? Yes, it was me who gave you and your friends that little adventure." Shadowflare bragged. "Didn't work out through. Since then, I've been lying in wait, for another chance. A chance I've now been give with this alien orb!"

While he had been busy talking, Syndrea had noticed his grip had been loosening. And she signaled this to Nightfire with her eyes.

Nightfire gave a slight nod of confirmation. Syndrea was going to break free allowing him to get a clear shot at Shadowflare.

The dragon tensed, and fired the moment he saw Syndrea move. However, he'd greatly misunderstood her intentions. And underestimated how much his friend's combat abilities had improved.

What Syndrea did was trip up Shadowflare with her tail, snatching orb on the process. It worked perfectly and the female velociraptor grabbed it in her claws.

In horror, Nightfire realized, too late, that the maneuver had put her right in the path of his fiery breath. And that breath had been fired with full force.

In that moment, Nightfire saw the one he cared for the most flash before his eyes. And his greatest sin about to strike.

It did, hitting the orb Syndrea instinctively held out in front of her to protect herself. There was an electrical crackly as energy swirled around the orb…before it exploded in a burst of Energon.

The blast threw everybody down…however all Nightfire head was Syndrea's scream as she went over the edge. Her retracted Energon blade hit the ground near his feet.

"NO!" The dragon pulled himself up as quickly as his body would let him and ran to the edge, prepared to dive down after her. However, another explosion threw him head over heels.

This one was from the spot Syndrea had fallen onto.

"No…no…" Nightfire was reaching out with his mind…but found nothing. Not a single trace of her. "NO! NO! RRRRAAAAAAAARRRRGGHHHHH!"

His dragon body roared with every ounce of its energy, letting off such a terrifying beast scream that it would've cause even the boldest of warriors to hesitate.

There was another groan was Shadowflare pulled himself to his feet. The very sight of the Predacon filled Nightfire with pure rage, so much that his fiery red eyes seemed to explode with the flame's color.

"YOU…YOU!"

Shadowflare tried to run, only to have Nightfire pounce on him, slamming him hard. The dragon pulled him up and launched a frenzy of claw slashes and tail lashes at the Predacon, making sure every one hurt him badly.

Shadowflare fell, bring up his bowgun is desperation. Nightfire simply crushed it in his jaws.

Like a lion upon its prey, Nightfire used his entire body weight to hold Shadowflare down as his jaws tore into the screaming Predacon's circuits.

Mech-fluid splattered everywhere, on Nightfire's face, his fore claws, and his eyes. None of it was even noted by the enraged dragon.

All he was concerned about was repeating the dismembering feat on Shadowflare, only making sure to cause the Predacon even more pain. Finally, the dragon clamped his jaws around the neck and twisted, snapping the circuitry and effectively paralyzing his opponent.

"YOU'LL DIE! YOU'LL DIE FOR KILLING THE ONE I LOVE!" Nightfire howled.

Raising a claw, he called Syndrea's Energon blade to his hand, igniting it as he took hold.

"Wait! You're a Maximal right?" Shadowflare pleaded. "Maximals don't kill right?"

"I'm not a Maximal." Nightfire snarled. "You merely assumed I was…"

The sword came down.

* * *

"Nightfire?" Calico asked as Nightfire came walking past them.

The dragon simply shoved his way between her and Dinobot. Airazor came flying in and landed beside the group.

"What happened?" Airazor asked. "Did you get the orb?"

"The orb has been destroyed." Nightfire replied blankly, staring at the ground. "And Shadowflare…we won't be hearing from him, ever again. His spark has been extinguished."

"Syndrea? Wasn't she with you?" Calico pushed.

Nightfire refused to answer.

"Nightfire!"

"That Pred…he…no it was me. I killed her."

No one stopped him this time as he spread his wings and flew away.

Calico held on to Dinobot's arm and was surprised to find the soldier didn't pull it away. Airazor too, stared at the ground, not knowing what to do.

* * *

**Several days later… **

A lone figure stood atop the high mountain. It was Nightfire, well protected from the chilling winds by the thick hide of his black dragon beast mode.

Whether the others knew or not was none of his concern. Searches had been carried out, but absolutely no trace of Syndrea had been found.

Bringing his claw up, Nightfire stuck Syndrea's Energon blade into the ground near the small marker. For a long while, he stared, first down to the valley below and later the sky above.

Nightfire opened his claw, releasing the petals of a white flower which were immediately blown away by the winds. His eyes turned and followed as they flew away.

"Syndrea…" The black dragon finally spoke. "Was our love…ever meant to be?"


	12. Other Shadows

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**Other Shadows**

By nightdragon0

"Hhaargghh!" I yelled swinging my sword.

Kirath brought up a blade of his own, deflecting the blow.

Frustrated, I swung from the side, Kirath blocking again. I begun attacking wildly, and yet Kirath still blocked each one, seemingly without much effort at all.

On the last blow, he tripped me, sending me rolling head over heels.

"You're not focusing." He said. "You have to clear your mind!"

However, I wasn't listening. Instead, I was growling from my kneeling position.

"Nightfire?"

Letting off a fierce roar, I transformed into my dragon beast mode and charged at him.

"Nightfire!" Kirath raised his blade, through hesitant to use it on me.

I had no such compulsions and let my beast instinct take over. I slashed at his arm with my claws, causing him to drop his sword.

"Nightfire! Control yourself! Argh!"

I sank my fangs into Kirath's hand. He refused to strike back and I began clawing his face and chest.

"Nightfire!" He cried desperately.

I threw my body weight against him, slamming Kirath onto his back. Pressing my fore claws against his shoulders, I released his hand and went for his neck. Kirath brought both arms up and grabbed one hand onto each of my upper and lower jaws. I snarled and continued to shove against him, hot saliva dripping from my mouth.

"Please, don't make me do this!"

Kirath finally saw he had no choice and quickly reached a hand down to his belt. I almost knew what was coming next, and yet I just couldn't let go.

Kirath brought up a taser and fired it at my chest. I cried out in pain as the energy swept through my body. This taser hadn't been set to hurt me through, just paralyze me for several minutes, until I could calm down.

I gave one final howl before I hit the ground. All feelings in my body had suddenly disappeared.

"You know I dislike having to do that to you." Kirath sighed, tossing the taser aside and pushing my body off him.

I could only utter a muffled whimper, give the face that my jaws were paralyzed. Kirath gently set my head down on the ground and saw down beside me.

"This is the reason why no one wants to be near you these days. You just let loose with your beast instincts and end up nearly killing the rest of us."

I didn't want to deny him. Giving my conscious mind up to the wild, untamed nature of my dragon side was by far the easiest form of emotional release I could currently muster.

Especially since the…no, I didn't want to think about it. Silently, I prayed Kirath wouldn't bring it up.

"I know you're tormented within." Kirath closed his eyes. "As much as I want to tell you 'I know what you're going through', that would be a lie. But is this how you want to carry on?"

_Please Kirath, just stop there! _

"What would Syndrea think if she saw you like this now?"

That was the breaking point. My entire body trembled and wriggled as I tired desperately to move. Kirath cradled my head in his arms and stroked my face.

"Calm down, calm down…"

Finally, I submitted and relaxed my tense muscles.

"We've all had losses. Airazor and Tigatron disappeared, Dinobot…Syndrea…I think you know. Syndrea…wasn't your fault. We've tried to tell you that time and time again, yet you keep pushing us away."

It was true perhaps, what he said. But Syndrea…I just couldn't get the scene out of my mind. I kept playing it back, each time wondering if there was something I could've done, something I should've done. But now, I was powerless to do anything at all.

Syndrea…she had been my link to the rest of this group. Only now, I realized how much I'd come to depend on her support to get me 'into the pack'.

Without her, it was startling to see how much I'd reverted back to my old self.

_Cold…uncaring…heartless… _

It was the reason why I had told myself in the past that I wouldn't depend on anyone, ever. But now that I'd started caring again, I couldn't get out of it.

_The only person you can depend on is yourself. _I repeated that phrase.

Yes, life would've been so much simpler if I'd kept to that…

* * *

**Flashback… **

It was seemingly an ordinary night that I walked into the bar.

It was closing up, but the bartender knew me personally. He nodded to me as I took my usual spot by the counter and waited for him to lock the door and finish clearing up. It was quite common for me to do this, especially to avoid the crowd. As a fellow Predacon, the bartender certainly knew that.

"My usual." I waved.

I gulped down the large mug and allowed the bartender to deduct the amount from my credit card.

"Seems like you had a tough time at work." He commented, leaning both elbows against the counter.

"You can tell, huh old timer?" I muttered.

"I was young like you once, kid. When it comes to us Predacons, things tend to repeat themselves. Whether or not we have to kill for a living."

"Well, I'm about to be different." I growled. "I'm quitting."

"What about that big job you were talking about?"

"Oh, that moron Megatron and his Golden Discs. Pah, I ditched the guy. Too bad he didn't get caught when I 'accidentally' sounded an alarm."

"Hmmm…turning your back already. Is that what you nearly killed your brother for?"

"Humph." I muttered. "Wish I had killed him."

"What's Megatron going to do with a bunch of old relics anyway?"

"Don't know, don't care." I replied, drowning down the rest of my mug. "In a few hours, I'll be on a ship out of here. And I won't be coming back."

I slammed a pass down on the table and allowed him to look at it.

"Maximal Exploration Vessel, Axalon. Enlisted crew…hmmm…pulled another one, I see."

"This ship'll be going far away." I explained, gesturing to backpack I'd set down on the floor, containing my personal belongings. "And I'll be on it. Getting far away from here. Came here for a final drink before I set out."

"Don't drink too much. You don't want to be suffering from a hangover on your 'mission', especially posing as a Maximal explorer."

"Don't burden yourself with concerns about me, old timer." I growled. "I don't need people backing me up…they only get in my way. The only person you can depend on is yourself."

"If that's the way you see it, then believe it. I can't stop you anyway."

"By the way, here." I tossed the bartender a keycard. "To my old apartment. I cleared out all the important stuff, but you might want to grab some equipment…before it gets raided or something."

"Erm…thanks kid. I'm gonna miss my best customer through."

With that, I got up and waved, slinging by backpack on and walking out the back door. Leaving one lifetime behind.

* * *

**The present… **

"You thinking about something?" Kirath's voice snapped me back to reality.

_No. _

The taser's effects were still active and I wasn't able to move a joint or muscle yet. Kirath's head turned and he stared up at something in the sky. Even without being able to see for myself, my 'psychic' senses still picked it up.

"Nightfire, you feel something?" Kirath wondered. "Hmmm…was it that light I saw in the sky just now?"

Indeed, it was. It was…well…hard to describe. Unlike anything I'd ever felt before, and yet…so familiar.

I almost dreaded to find out what.

* * *

"It's something alien in origin all right." I heard Rhinox saying as I followed Kirath into the base.

"Is it anything like what we've encountered before?" Optimus asked.

"Quite frankly, I'm not sure." Rhinox shook his head. "But I can tell one thing, it's big. Very big."

"A transport vessel?"

"I would say a floating city."

"Seems as through its coming down deep within the arctic regions." Silverbolt put a finger on the screen, displaying a map.

From the crowd around the screen, it didn't take much to figure out what was going on. The scanners had picked up a large, unidentified flying object emerging from transwarp space just outside the planet. The unknown vessel had descended and apparently landed within a heavily snowy area, far away from both Maximal and Predacon bases.

"Think it's worth checking out?" Cheetor asked. "It could be something important."

"Whatever it may be, we can't get Megatron claim it." Optimus declared.

"But what if it's something dangerous?" Rattrap asked. "You know, maybe it'll go BOOM or something and Megs'll get fragged. Better him than us going and getting ourselves killed, right?"

"You're an optimist." Calico snapped sarcastically.

I was at the back of the room with my arms folded, staring at the blinking dot on the map. Then, all of a sudden, the flashes began.

Images that abruptly shot through my mind. While I couldn't make out much of them, one in particular caught my attention.

It was the flash of the unknown warrior, with his plasma cannon pointed directly at my head. Unintentionally, I dropped to my knees, putting one hand to my head and the other over my mouth to prevent me from screaming out. I was glad no one was looking in my direction to see me freak out.

_That place…_I thought, taking a last look at the screen.

I was back in beast mode, out the back door and flying away before anyone could stop me.

* * *

The chilling winds tore at my scales like thousands of tiny insect bites. I wasn't really adapted for winter conditions, and the fact that I was flying against the winds certainly didn't help.

My scanner beeped, indicating several friendly shapes behind me: the other Maximals. I frowned, but knowing it was futile to run away, I slowed down and let them catch up.

Optimus carrying Rhinox, Cheetor carrying Rattrap, Silverbolt and Kirath with Calico.

"And just what did you have in mind running off here by yourself?" Optimus asked angrily.

"That alien structure…I have to check it out…on my own." I said. "You might be in danger if you come."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Not really…I mean, I can't…I don't know." I muttered. "I just feel something with it."

"Either way, we detected several Predacon signatures in the area. And we're all going in together for this one, got it?"

"Fine, I got it." I nodded glumly. "It's this way."

I led the group over the mountains, down a twisting valley and finally, out to an open area.

"Looks like a crater!" Cheetor pointed.

In anticipation, everyone quickened their pace and flew over the final hill, to see a large crater in the ground…and nothing inside it.

"Talk about anti-climax." Rattrap muttered.

"But how could something so big just disappear?" Silverbolt wondered, flying closer.

"Wait! Don't go near to…"

BAM! A light flashed as Silverbolt hit an invisible barrier.

Howling, the Fuzor was thrown out of the sky. I swooped down and caught him by one of his rear talons, hovering just a couple of feet above the ground.

"There's your answer." I said.

The next instant, I dropped him head-first as a missile shot past us.

"Optimus Primal, predictable as always." Megatron's boastful voice sounded.

"Quite your gloating Megatron! We…"

"Oh just shut up and start fighting!" I cut in, throwing several fireballs in the Predacons' direction.

Their group too, split up and took up battle positions.

Still in beast mode, I drew my sword and lingered back slightly, deflecting anything that came in my direction. I was looking out for one warrior in particular, one I could really take my frustration out on.

"Hey Deathwing! Come and get me!"

"Don't push your luck!" Deathwing screeched, swooping down towards me with his talons.

I clawed back and the two of us broke into a mid-air claw and talon scratching match. Using my tail, I pushed against him and forced us apart. At the same time, both of us transformed and whipped out our weapons. However, we never got a chance to start shooting.

"Rrargh!"

"What the?!"

Something exploded right between us, stunning Deathwing slightly, but sending me crashing into the snowy ground. Wiping the snow out of my face, I looked up to see lasers firing at both Maximal and Predacon alike from seemingly nowhere.

_A cloaking device?_ I thought, staring up at the empty space.

The battlefield was thrown into even more chaos as both sides panicked. Some were standing and firing, some were running.

I was wondering what to do myself where a flicker of light caught my eye. It was my sword, seemingly suspended in mid-air. As blue energy cracked around it, I realized it was stuck in the wall of whatever vessel was beneath the cloaking device. Not wanting to leave it behind, I moved towards it, only to be thrown forward by a stray blast. But instead of being repelled by the invisible shield, I found myself lying beneath my sword.

Apparently, the odd design of the outer structure had saved me.

I glanced around and saw several of the other transformers lying sprawled around the area. Not dead, but merely stunned. All the firing had now stopped.

The area around me flickered, and slowly, a solid shape begun to materialize. I gasped, staring at what seemed to be a 50 foot dark blue pyramid-like structure over me.

_To be able to shield and cloak this thing…the energy requirements must be enormous! _

I heard the sound of gears grinding and saw a ramp opening above me. Grabbing my sword, I ducked beneath the ramp and watched.

A line of soldiers marched out in formation. They seemed somewhat familiar, and when I finally put the pieces together, I wished I hadn't remembered.

These were the humanoid Cybertronians, dark blue in color, armored at both body and head. Their helmets completely covered their faces, making it impossible to distinguish one soldier from the other. Each one also carried an assault rifle similar to the ones our military utilized.

These were the same soldiers I'd seen in my vision of Sky Lynx's last battle.

I shuddered at the thoughts of my past life coming back to haunt me. I was so lost in thought that I barely noticed the soldiers dragging the others up the ramp and into their fortress.

Next thing I knew, the ramp was retracting.

On impulse, I flew up and dashed between the closing gap, hearing the dull thud as the metallic door slammed behind me.

Perhaps it would've been better if I'd thought about it much, much more carefully first.

* * *

The black walls of the fortress allowed my black hide to blend in fairly well. In dragon mode, I clung to the pipes hanging down from the ceiling and choose to follow the group of the soldiers escorting Kirath, Calico, Cheetor and Rattrap.

The four were glancing around uneasily, but with blasters jabbed at their backs, and probably orders not to speak, they marched on in silence.

The place was literally a maze. At one point, I mistakenly took a wrong turn and ended up entering a large, storage room, littered with various construction materials.

As I turned to leave, someone grabbed me from behind, holding my jaws shut and placing a sword at my throat.

"Oh, it's just you."

It was Deathwing, speaking in a rather calm tone considering the situation.

"You know, I'd love this chance to make a trophy of your head right now, but a fight would certainly stir up a lot of unwanted attention. Besides, your dead body lying around would look rather conspicuous. So, stop struggling and listen."

"What the hell are you doing here?!" I asked harshly as he uncovered my mouth.

"Same thing you are. Trying to rescue some comrades." He laughed. "Although I hardly know whose where in all the chaos. By the way, a bunch of your Maximals were taken down the corridor to the southwest."

"Humph, why should I believe you're not sending me into a trap?!"

"Because, if you get busted, it'll put the whole place on alert."

"I expected that." I muttered. "Fine, just get your sword away from my neck first."

"It's strange, after all this time how we still think alike." He commented, stepping back.

"Stay out of my way, and I'll keep out of yours." I growled, checking the corridor before leaving the room.

"There's no time-traveling orb to help you out this time. Think about that before you get yourself killed." Deathwing said as he departed, jogging lightly in the opposite direction.

* * *

I had indeed been pointed in the right direction. Standing outside the door, I could hear the captured Maximals talking among themselves.

"Come on, we've got to think of something!" Cheetor was saying.

"Well, I can think of three." Rattrap replied. "We're screwed, we're more screwed and we're all gonna die."

"Oh shut up." Calico growled.

I reached out with my mind and probed the room. Three guards, but no security cameras as far as I could tell.

"Surprise!" I yelled, barging through the door and slicing the nearest soldier vertically in half.

Another whipped out his rifle and fired while the last one ran for what I assumed to be the alarm. I used my sword to deflect the shot into the running one, blowing his head off. With a telekinetic shove, I pushed the last guard into the prison barrier.

The powerful energy surge overloaded his circuits, blowing him to pieces.

"Could you possibly have been any louder?!" Rattrap remarked as the prison bars flickered off.

"Hey, don't complain when you're being rescued." I growled. "You guys know if anyone else was taken prisoner?"

"We don't know." Kirath replied, gathering the group's weapons from a nearby locker. "Only thing we can do is find some way to get them through our com-links."

"Which happened to be jammed right now." Calico sighed. "Wonderful! Besides, who the heck are these guys anyway?"

"Another fraction, one that's been lying in wait since our ancestors began the Great Cybertronian Wars. Slowly, they've been developing and gathering their resources."

"So now, they want to frag both our sides?" Rattrap asked.

Kirath had the instinct to stand by the door and keep watch during the discussion. It was his warning that saved us from having a nasty surprise.

"Everyone on alert! They're coming!"

"Impossible, how'd they find me so fast?" I muttered, transforming and drawing my rifle.

"Forget about it! We've got to get out of here!" Calico declared, also bringing up her twin Uzis.

"This way!" I yelled, kicking the door open and tossing a fragmentation grenade down the hall.

The explosion sent the approaching squad flying to the ground, giving our group a chance to sprint down the only other corridor available.

Chaos ensued and guns blazed as my rifle, Kirath's dual pistols, Calico's Uzis, Rattrap's handgun and Cheetor's Quasar blasters exchanged shots with the 'alien' soldiers. Clearly, these were expendable troops as it didn't take much to bring them down.

The only problem was that everyone's ammunition had been depleted from the previous battle with the Predacons. And the enemy seemed to be in such large numbers that no matter how many we shot down, there were always more to take their place.

Alarms began blaring as red lights flashed, illuminating the black walls in a dark red.

"Not good." Calico muttered.

At the rear of our group, she riddled a last guard with bullets before continuing.

"The entrance ramp was right here!" I pointed as we turned a corner.

The rest of the path was a single, straight hallway.

"Rattrap, get the door open!" Kirath ordered. "The rest of us will hold this position until then."

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Rattrap replied, running for the control panel beside the door.

I stood beside Calico as we ducked into an alcove in the wall to avoid the enemy gunfire.

"What are these guys? Drones?" I wondered, over the vibration of my rifle.

I ejected the empty clip and stuck in a new one.

"Hmmm…hundred on one odds." Calico commented. "Sounds like your kind of battle."

"Dinobot would've liked it better."

That sentence just came out in the heat of the moment. I regretted it the instant it was out of my mouth. It hadn't been too long since Dinobot's heroic effort which had saved the valley of pre-humans, at the cost of his life.

I'd heard that Calico was pretty hurt by it, but I'd never paid attention, having my own losses to deal with. The vixen must've noticed the look on my face.

"Don't worry about it." She smiled. "Doesn't take a telepath to know what you're thinking."

"Guess…you really cared about him." I said, for the lack on anything else to mention.

"Something like Airazor and Tigatron before they disappeared. And you and Syndrea too." Calico spoke with hesitation. "Only I, well, never had the chance to mention it. I was afraid, really."

"Afraid is something I'd never thought I'd hear you say."

"It's hard to care sometimes, when your self image is at stake. Especially in a war zone." She sighed. "But you know, I think I actually learnt a lot from him. Hard as it is to believe."

That certainly was a 'deep', conversation, more so considering it took place in the middle of a battle.

"Hey people, we have a problem!" Rattrap called. "The ramp controls are linked to the main system. I can't override them form here!"

"Then blast it open!" Kirath yelled. "Take cover everyone!"

Our group ducked as the ear-splitting explosion shook the area. I looked up, only to stare in shock at the door. It hadn't even been scratched by Rattrap's bomb.

"No way…" Cheetor gasped.

"We ain't getting out this way." Rattrap said.

"I don't think we can hold this position much longer too." I added in.

"Kirath, I'd give our hosts a little diversion and you lead the others down there." Calico pointed to one of the paths leading off from the X-junction ahead.

"No, Calico I can't let you…"

"I'll be fine, trust me." She insisted.

"And whatcha hoping to do? Distract all those guys with a striptease?" Rattrap laughed.

Calico promptly slapped him.

"Hey scale-brain, give me a smoke grenade." She said, snatching one off my belt. "Once you see the smoke, go. Understand?"

"All right." Kirath nodded reluctantly. "Just be careful."

Calico nodded and transformed into her fox beast mode. As I was kneeling and reloading my rifle, she leaned close to my ear.

"Nightfire, you know that duel we're supposed to have? I know you would've won anyway." Calico grabbed the smoke grenade in her jaws and ran.

It was only when I looked down and saw her discarded Uzis, with all the empty ammo clips nearby that I realized what she intended to do.

"Calico! NO!" I shouted.

Too late, the cloud of smoke appeared as she detonated the grenade.

"Let's go!" Kirath ordered.

The junction was surprisingly clear as we dashed through. Calico had lured the entire squad of soldiers to follow her in the opposite direction from which we were headed.

However, in the distance, I could hear the crackling of her whip.

* * *

I think everyone remaining felt the same way I did about Calico. We carried on in silence and unfortunately, ran right into a dead-end room.

The soldiers had caught up with us by this time, and I kicked a table over to take cover behind as we exchanged fire.

"Oh man! We're trapped like rats!" Rattrap yelled.

Ignoring him, I scanned the room and spotted a small vent in the wall. I shot it open and glanced down. It was a long tunnel leading down into darkness.

"A rubbish chute." I told the others, taking a whiff of the unpleasant odor.

"Maybe we can use it to escape." Cheetor beamed.

"Well, it's certainly suited for trash." I said, gesturing towards Rattrap.

"Hey!"

"Hurry and go first." Kirath told him.

"Always got to be the rat." Rattrap sighed, covering his nose and leaping down.

"Cheetor, go." I said.

Cheetor hesitated for a while, looking over both Kirath and myself. The two of us were both larger and had broad wings, which couldn't be folded too much.

"But how are you two going to fit down that?" He asked.

"That's the point. We can't." I replied, before grabbing the younger Maximal and throwing him down.

"NIGHTFIRE! GENERAL! NNOOOO!" He screamed as he spiraled down into the darkness.

"Kirath? You knew, right?"

The older warrior gave me a nod. I dropped my M4A1 rifle, the last of its ammunition depleted. Kirath's two Berettas joined the pile.

"Looks like its over for us." He said softly. "They don't look like they'll be taking prisoners this time."

"Not before we go out fighting down to our claws!" I declared, reverting to my black dragon form.

Kirath too, did the same, transforming into his jade-green dragon mode.

I drew the Phoenix Blade, my green Energon blade and grasped it tightly.

"You don't kill fire breathing dragons without taking a hell of the flames first." I continued. "Especially intelligent ones."

"Haha, nice speech." Kirath chuckled.

"General, promise me something." I whispered. "Promise me we'll both go down…together."

"I promise." The green dragon smiled. "Well, you can let loose that dragon's rage now. We both can, together."

Outside, the soldiers would certainly have noticed but now that our firing had stopped. They'd wait for a while before storming in.

And it seemed like their time was now.

Our simultaneous roars echoed throughout the corridors as we attacked, as dragons.


	13. The Last Revelation

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**The Last Revelation**

By nightdragon0

Deathwing pulled the lone guard into the shadows and jabbed his Gunblade through the victim's head. Dropping the limp body, Deathwing stared down at it.

_All the soldiers look exactly like this. _He reflected. _Maybe one or two have bigger guns. Humph, reminds me of an ant colony. _

The sound of footsteps jerked him out of his thoughts as the Predacon pulled himself around the corner, out of view of the passing guards.

_I'll find some help first before I try figuring this out. _

He had given Nightfire some information on the location of one of the prison areas, but Deathwing had another one in mind.

From what he'd been observing since he'd sneaked in, the Beast Warriors taken captive had been brought to two different locations. Deathwing was now headed towards one of them.

While he did prefer a straight fight as opposed to sneaking around, Deathwing knew the former was a pretty much suicidal course of action.

Upon reaching the door, he paused and listened. He could make out Terrorsaur whining, Muricate yelling at him to shut up, and Blackarachnia telling someone off.

_Why, if it isn't the white knight, Silverbolt. _Deathwing thought. _Well, he's going to take a bit of convincing, but he might turn out useful. _

Peering in, he counted three guards. Picking up a screw on the floor, the tossed it against the wall.

"What was that?" One of the guards moved out the door to investigate.

Deathwing, hiding behind the door, grabbed the guards and dealt with him as silently as before.

"Hey, I could use some help here." He mimicked the guard's tone of voice.

The two unknowing guards simply walked right into his trap. Deathwing swung his weapon, decapitating one and firing a shell through his body which hit his companion behind him.

"Thought you might come." Muricate grinned as Deathwing pushed the guards' bodies away.

"Don't get your hopes too high, I didn't to it just for you." Deathwing growled, shutting off the prison bars. "Get your weapons and let's get out of here."

The Predacons hurried out to retrieve their firearms from several lockers within the room. Silverbolt stepped out too, but didn't look too happy, considering he was standing in a room full of his enemies.

"Humph, funny they put you in here too." Deathwing muttered.

"Grrr…you have my gratitude for the rescue, but I feel you have some agenda behind this." Silverbolt gave him a nasty stare.

"Ever heard of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?" Deathwing asked.

"I understand your point." Silverbolt nodded reluctantly.

It didn't take a genius to comprehend the current situation. And that was basically 'aliens suddenly dropped out of nowhere and attacked both sides'.

Suddenly, alarms began blaring.

"Damn, what's Nightfire gone and done this time?!" Deathwing cursed. "And this was the one occasion I required him NOT to screw up!"

"Uh-oh, I think we have company!" Blackarachnia warned, looking out the door.

"Argh! There are too many!" Terrorsaur yelled as laser bursts begun flying about.

"You know, I think he's actually right." Muricate muttered, raising her Shotgun and firing.

"If we stay here, we'll be overwhelmed!" Silverbolt added in.

The group managed to inch their way into the corridor, using the pillars for cover. However, they were still unable to reach the bend and escape from the dead end room.

"Hey, think we could get out if we had a little distraction?" Terrorsaur leaned close to Deathwing and asked.

"Hmmm…an excellent suggestion." Deathwing nodded.

Suddenly, he snatched the energy rifle out of the Transmetal Pterodactyl's hand and grabbed him around the neck.

"I also assume you'd like to play the part!"

"Nnnooooooo!" Terrorsaur screamed as Deathwing threw him towards the enemy line.

Terrorsaur's final screams rang out even as countless numbers of energy bursts tore through his body. Deathwing made full use of the diversion and sprinted round the corridor. The other Predacons and Silverbolt followed, through for the latter it was a hesitant action.

"That's a way to shut him up!" Muricate panted as they ran.

"Keep moving!" Deathwing called. "From the looks of things, we pissed them off and they aren't taking prisoners this time!"

"You would…betray your own comrade?" Silverbolt questioned, keeping pace with Deathwing.

"Comrade? Don't make me laugh." Deathwing growled. "Liability would be a term that barely defines him."

"And me?"

"You're decent enough. Just don't hold me back and I won't toss you in front of the firing squad."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"I should be asking you the same question." Deathwing retorted.

* * *

Calico drove her fist through the soldier's dark blue chest, tearing out his core processor. She pushed the body aside and ran as even more guards sprang up to take the fallen soldier's place.

In a flash, her whip was up. She tripped up the lead soldier, sending him stumbling into his squad.

"There's no end to them…" She gasped, dashing through the corridor.

Much to her surprise, the vixen found herself emerging into a large stadium. There was no way to describe it other that it reassembled one of those gladiator arenas from the humans' ancient Rome.

Several obstacles had been set up, such as large boulders and a model of a wrecked space shuttle, as if some training exercise had been carried out earlier.

However, some energy field separated the arena from the spectator stands above it. A faint flickering gave that away. Calico touched it, only to draw her hand back in pain.

Calico ducked behind the largest boulder to catch her breath. Glancing out, she saw the soldiers pouring in through the entrance. It was also the only entrance and Calico realized she wouldn't be getting out that way.

Fighting without firearms and just a whip had taken its toll on her.

Her silver and brown armor was badly charred and burnt by laser fire in many places. Mech-fluid was leaking out through a wound in her left side. Her right shoulder ached terribly and her right leg was barely moveable.

It was strange, how she didn't even notice those things in the heat of the battle.

"The battle…" Calico said to herself. "Dinobot…"

He'd taken on incredible odds and had yet emerged triumphant. It was ironic, how she was in the same situation…but wouldn't be able to pull off a victory.

"Dinobot…I'll go down fighting, like you did." She spoke as the soldier neared her position. "I may not be the best warrior out there…but at least I'll earn a place beside you in the Matrix…"

A soldier appeared from around the boulder and Calico lashed at him with her whip. She was fully aware that another one had come up from the other side of the boulder, right where her back was facing.

Calico knew he had fired…even before the shot went through her head.

_And the rest is silence… _

* * *

Nightfire roared, tearing through the guards even as the multiple laser bursts burned at his hide. Kirath was by his side, unleashing his fiery breath into another group.

The green glow of Nightfire's sword flashed, his deadly blade ripping through even more victims. A shot hit his arm, causing him to drop the weapon.

Kirath clamped his jaws down on another soldier's arm, violently shaking him before hurling him into his comrades.

However, like the other Beast Warriors had discovered, there was seemingly no end to their numbers.

_Are they actually hesitating? _Nightfire wondered.

Several soldiers in the rear line were in a position to fire, and yet they were holding back. One seemed to be speaking into his com-link, through Nightfire couldn't hear over the noise.

Swinging his tail to clear a path, Nightfire pushed towards the suspicious soldier.

"Take the dragons alive!" He suddenly declared, raising his rifle.

Fangs and claws outstretched, Nightfire pounced. He did succeed in knocking the soldier down, but in mid-fall he fired his weapon into Nightfire's chest.

Roaring in pain, the dragon found himself stunned and barely able to move. He realized that yellowish energy was flowing all over his body.

_I'm getting a bad sense of déjà vu here… _

Another scream of agony came, telling him Kirath had been hit as well. That was the last thing Nightfire heard before his vision faded to black.

* * *

"AAAAARRRGGGHHHHH!" Cheetor screamed, sliding down the tunnel.

SLPOOSH!

"Hey, get off me kiddo!" Rattrap yelled angrily, throwing the younger Maximal off.

"General! Nightfire! They're still up there!" Cheetor cried.

"Excuse me, not to sound un-sympathetic, but we've got bigger problems here!" Rattrap cut in. "We're in a garbage dump for crying out loud!"

The pair was up to their ankles in murky, black water. Dozens of junk pieces like scrap metal and deformed sheets were littered about the area, forming large piles of junk. There was barely enough space for the two to stand.

"Isn't this your environment?"

"Hey, no one makes the jokes around here but me!"

"Yeah, yeah." Cheetor nodded reluctantly. "But we'd better get out of here first."

Raising his Quasar blasters, he fired.

"No don't!" Rattrap protested.

The laser bounced off the door, rebounded off the far wall and came towards the pair, who scrambled out of the way. It continued for several more times before fizzling itself out.

"I already tried that ya crazy kid! It's magnetically sealed!"

"Sorry…" Cheetor muttered. "But, what do we do then?"

"Nothing! We're basically stuck here!" Rattrap replied. "I can't blast this door open without blowing us into tiny little pieces in the process."

"I'll try the com-link." Cheetor decided, tapping his wrist. "Cheetor calling anybody. Please respond you guys! Cheetor calling anybody! Somebody!"

"Well, it could be worse." Rattrap sighed, leaning against the door.

Just then, then rumbling of gears started. The walls began to move in on the trapped pair.

"It's worse…" Rattrap moaned.

Cheetor was staring in horror at the closing walls.

"Don't just stand there! Try to brace it with something!" Rattrap ordered, grabbing a large pole and sticking it between the two walls.

"Aarrgghh!" Cheetor threw his shoulder against one of the walls, unfortunately to no avail. Groaning at the seemingly hopeless situation, he suddenly remembered the com-link. "Cheetor calling anybody! Please respond you guys!"

"We're both gonna die!!" Rattrap wailed.

"Will you SHUT UP??"

* * *

"I think we lost them for now." Deathwing muttered, leaning against the wall and listening.

_It's odd, really, how the lot of them suddenly seem to run off. As if they'd been given new orders… _

The foursome had found their way into a large storage room and shoved several large crates against the door.

"That's won't hold forever through." Muricate commented.

"And some of us do want to get out of here alive." Blackarachnia sighed.

"And no matter what, I will make sure to carry out your request, milady." Silverbolt declared with a small bow.

Everyone in the room sighed.

"Well, keeping bowser here around is still better than getting blown to scrap with beak-brain." The black widow tried to reassure herself.

"Cheetor calling anybody! Please respond you guys!" Silverbolt's com-link hissed.

Gasping, Silverbolt pushed a button on his wrist and replied.

"Cheetor? Is that you?"

"Silverbolt! Man, am I glad to hear you! Listen, we're stuck in a garbage disposal here! We need you to shut down all the garbage smashers on the B1 level!"

"What?!"

"Shut down all the garbage smashers on the B1 level! Where ever you are, find a terminal or something!"

"I…erm…" Silverbolt stared around wildly.

"Over there." Deathwing pointed to a wall mounted terminal.

Silverbolt raced over to it and entered the system, frantically tapping the keys. A non-essential function like the garbage disposal wouldn't be too heavily secured, but Silverbolt wasn't exactly very good with computer systems either.

"How do I work this?!" He moaned.

As the Predacons stood watching, he turned and gave Blackarachnia a pleading look.

"Oh, all right! Step aside!" She yelled, moving to the terminal. "Grrr…this might take a while…"

"Please, hurry!" Silverbolt begged.

* * *

"Come on…please!" Cheetor muttered.

The pole they'd stuck between the walls began to bend and buckle under the enormous pressure. Cheetor closed his eyes when the gears suddenly came to a halt.

The walls had stopped moving.

"Wow…bird-dog actually did it…" Rattrap gasped. "Woohoooo!"

The two started screaming excitedly.

* * *

The com-link wasn't very clear, but Silverbolt could still hear the screams.

"Oh listen to them! They're dieing!" He howled, banging his head against the wall. "This is all my fault! Why didn't I study the programming manual better?! I could've done something!!"

"Hey, bird-dog! You there? We're all right, you hear?" Rattrap's voice hissed. "We're OK!"

The three Predacons in the room burst out laughing. Silverbolt went practically red in embarrassment.

"Hey, open the doors for us and give us the scoop." Rattrap said.

Silverbolt explained his current situation as Blackarachnia disabled the door locks on the garbage smashers. Needless to say, Rattrap wasn't too happy about Silverbolt making a 'truce' with the Predacons, but being Silverbolt, he insisted they could be trusted, at least for now.

Their shared plight was too risky for them to try any treacherous ideas.

"Have you been able to contact anyone on the outside?" Silverbolt was asking.

"Ya think I haven't been trying?! Anyway, the answer is a flat out no-go. Something's blocking any links we have to the outside. Maybe, I could hotwire a communications system or something…"

"There's no point in that." Deathwing cut in. "What to you expect your friends to do? Come charging with guns blazing? I'd expect that of Primal, but it's still a death wish nevertheless."

"As much as I hate to admit it, he's got a point." Silverbolt sighed. "Neither Maximal nor Predacon forces would stand a chance in a frontal assault."

"Hey rat," Deathwing leaned close to the com-link. "If you do survive long enough to get to a computer room or similar, look around instead for a power core."

"Huh?"

"Somewhere we could attack and cause some serious damage." Deathwing explained. "They may want us dead, but we'll take them from within. Not the surest plan, but it's better than hiding in the shadows waiting to be deactivated."

"What do you think Rattrap?" Silverbolt asked.

"Coming from a stinking Pred, it actually sounds reasonable."

"Humph, I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Deathwing muttered.

"Keep in touch, OK?" Rattrap signed off.

"We should keep moving too." Muricate said. "We're likely to be found if we stay in one place for too long…"

* * *

Pain immediately hit Nightfire as he reluctantly pulled himself back to consciousness.

The black dragon was still in beast mode, and found himself shackled to the wall. Huge chains immobilized his wings, tail, arms and legs, spreading them out like some pattern on the wall. There were at least five straps on his body alone, not even allowing the slightest movement.

His head was in some sort of brace, leaving his face looking upwards. With that and the chains around his neck, it was a wonder he could breathe at all. There was enough space to open his mouth a little, but not wide enough to use his breath weapons.

Out of the corner of his eye, Nightfire made out a greenish shape. Kirath, in dragon mode, had apparently been given the same treatment.

"Nightfire, you awake?" Kirath called.

"Yeah, barely." Nightfire managed. "So much for them not taking prisoners, huh?"

"They seemed to suddenly take a rather distinct interest in us the moment they saw us in beast mode." Kirath commented.

"I sort of noticed. It was something about us being dragons."

"It really puzzles me. Unless they somehow know dragons were an old Earth myth, but why should they care about that?"

"Perhaps…they had something to do with the dragons?" Nightfire suggested.

"What do you mean?"

The black dragon was about the reply when the huge double doors of their jail cell slid open and three soldiers walked into the room.

"Well, well." One of them laughed. "It so happens I have orders to bring you to the audience chamber. You two will have the great honor of being able to meet our glorious leader."

Nightfire snorted.

"Sir, we were instructed to bring them one at a time." A second soldier spoke.

"I know, so take the black one first."

"I'm quite happy to be the center of attraction." Nightfire growled sarcastically as a blindfold was thrown over his eyes.

"Shut up you!" The First soldier ordered, jabbing Nightfire hard in the ribs with his rifle. "You won't speak unless spoken to, understand?"

Nightfire was tempted to resist as the guards pulled the entire section of the wall he was strapped to out and lay it on a moving platform. However, curiosity overcame him.

_Meet their commander? The one behind all this? Perhaps this will be interesting… _

* * *

"Hah! Got it!" Rattrap whispered triumphantly, pulling the last few wires of the control panel.

The door lock gave an affirmative beep.

"Get ready…" Cheetor muttered as the doors slid open.

The pair sprang into the open doorway and sent shots flying, quickly taking down the three guards within before any could sound an alarm.

"Yeah!" They gave each other high-fives before slamming the door shut.

"All righty, let's see what we've got here." Rattrap seated himself in the central chair and begun tapping at the keys. "Woo…this is some fortress all right."

"What else can you find out?" Cheetor asked, leaning over his shoulder.

"Slow down kid, and get out of the way. You're blocking the light." Rattrap shoved him off. "Look, I don't want to go peeping into their top-secret information til I have and idea of their system. Last thing we want is for me to set off another alarm."

"Right."

"OK, trying to access communications here…ah, got it!" Rattrap clenched his fist. "I just need to charge this thing up and we'll be able to contact home base, and maybe they'll have some bright ideas. Haha, who says only Rhinox can do these things?!"

"Hey, look at this!" Cheetor pointed to another screen. "I think it's about General and Nightfire."

"What?!" Rattrap spun his chair in Cheetor's direction and read the report. "Blah…blah…blah…captured dragons. What? Why should they care so much about a couple of stinking, scale bellied fire-spitting lizards?"

"Rattrap!"

"All right! All right! I know. But it says here they're gonna be…oh man!"

"Put into some gladiator arena?" Cheetor wondered.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Rattrap muttered. He began hitting the keys and calling up the cell's location. "I'm going to look for those two. You stay here and get our message to da boss once the system's charged up. And look for the power core once you're at it."

Rattrap ran to the wall and pulled off the grills leading to an air vent.

"But what if they find me?" Cheetor protested, pointing to the door.

"Lock the door." Rattrap said as he went into beast mode. "And hope they don't have blasters."

"That isn't very reassuring…"

* * *

Nightfire felt as he were a blind mouse being dragged through a maze.

While blindfolded, he could feel his platform being dragged in many directions. There were lots of turns and corners, slopes and even elevators.

Naturally, he'd tried to reach out with his psychic senses, only to hit a brick wall, as if something was blocking them. Nightfire hadn't felt anything like it the first time he'd entered the fortress and it certainly frustrated him.

All he could do was wait.

After a while, Nightfire felt like he was brought onto another elevator. However, he suddenly realized the footsteps of his guards had faded away. They'd left him strapped to his platform, hovering in some dark area.

For a long time, Nightfire waited in anticipation. Then, he felt he was not alone.

"Who's there?" He called out.

"Welcome Nightfire." A voice boomed, seeming to come from everywhere at once. "I've been expecting you."

The voice chilled Nightfire to the bone, although he just couldn't seem to understand why. The dragon tried his best not to shiver with fear and continued talking.

"Expecting me?"

"Indeed. You who clad yourself in the scales of our creation."

"Huh? You mean…my dragon body?"

"If you would call it that." The voice replied. "You certainly know well enough how you got to be as you did."

"Yes…"

* * *

**Flashback**

_"I haven't told you how I first got this form, now did I?" He'd asked Syndrea. _

_"Strangely, no." _

_"Well, when we first crashed here, the other sent out the scanners of get their beast forms and stuff, right?" _

_"Yeah." _

_"I wasn't happy about those we got here. And Cheetor decided to run off, so I told the others to go first. They didn't know about me being a Predacon then, so they left me alone in the base, with the scanner running." _

_"And then?" _

_"That was when I started to feel an odd presence. I can't really describe it, but something like the chill you get when you think ghosts are around. Then, the long-range scanners picked up something at the very furthest of their capabilities, which weren't very good back then. It was this." _

_Nightfire lifted a claw and tapped his chest. _

_"A dragon, I knew it from the old earth myths. But they were supposedly just myths. So, I got myself into the scales and went to check it out. All I found was a footprint on top of a sandy cliff. I thumped my foot there and it was exactly the same. But then, I got a call from the others needing me in the first battle and I went off. I came back later, but the footprints were gone by then. So, basically, I never found whatever it was that gave me this." _

_"That's very interesting."_

* * *

**Present**

"Wait…did you…have something to do with that?" Nightfire gasped.

"You'll be able to decide, once you know our story."

"Firstly, do you have a name?"

"Haha, is the desire for individuality so important?" The voice laughed. "Very well, you may address me as Omega."

"The end?" Nightfire asked, noting the meaning of the word.

"You'll see." Omega replied. "Our story starts millions of years back, during the times of the First Great Cybertronian Wars. We fled Cybertron during the conflict, vanishing into the deepest regions of this vast galaxy. While your ancestors fought each other, we've dedicated ourselves to research, developing technology unmatched by anything today."

_No way… _Nightfire thought, continuing to listen.

"Cybertron today is full of too much conflict. Peace will always be a never be realized dream, and the wars will continue. And someday, the wars may even take effect on time itself."

"Time? But how?"

"My dear boy, you stand upon the soil and yet do not know." There was a huff in his voice. "One who knows nothing can understand nothing."

"You mean this planet, Earth…the Ark!" Nightfire realized.

"Yes, one can imagine the effects disrupting the Ark would cause, now would it?"

"And I assume this has something to do with us?"

"Indeed, your presence will need to be, removed. In whatever way possible."

"We already had some bunch of aliens show up and try to do that. And they failed. So exactly what makes you think you can do the job better?"

"Don't get me wrong, I have the power to take care of any aliens if they happen to have the courage to show their faces." Omega bragged. "But back to our topic, you wanted to know about our dragons, right?"

"Your dragons?" Nightfire muttered.

"A little experiment of ours, based strangely on the Earth myths of the humans we abducted for study. Genetically engineering a beast of great power and intelligence. Sadly, organic creatures aren't as durable as Cybertronians. Few survived, but of those which did, we attempted some field testing. One happened to escape us for a while, and guess which one?"

"Yes, the very dragon you took the form of."

"But why? What for?"

"To booster the strength of my army of course." Omega told him. "My army of clones. And alongside those, the might of the mechanical dragons, modeled after the organic dragons we created."

"Then all those soldiers…"

"Brilliant isn't it? Cybertron is in peril now because of individuality. And I will take over Cybertron and eliminate that, allowing Cybertron to function as it originally was intended to be…one supreme machine. And at its head, will be myself. The beginning and the end!"

"Then why don't you go do that and leave me alone?"

"Hahaha, like I said before, you and the rest of the Beast Warriors happen to be little pebbles in the way."

Nightfire knew it for sure now. This was the mysterious fraction that had remained hidden since ancient times, plotting to conquer Cybertron and the universe itself.

However, standing before him was the very being behind it all. The very same one who'd killed Sky Lynx…killed him in his past life…

It took Nightfire all of his self control to limit the showing of his anger.

"However, I have another thing in mind, all so specially for you Nightfire."

"Which is?" Nightfire growled.

"Join me. Join me and become my second-in-command. To find another seer is rare enough, but to find one with capability, talent, a masterful blend between the machine and the animal sides…is simply unbelievable."

Omega stroked his head, causing Nightfire to shake and attempt to pull away.

"Give your talents to my service and we will rule the known galaxy. You will be granted power beyond that of your wildest dreams!"

Nightfire was dumbfounded.

_Ultimate power…that's what I've always wanted…isn't it? _

"I'm sure it's not a difficult decision, my dear dragon." Omega continued. "You who will become…the Dragon of Destiny!"


	14. Dragon of Destiny

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**Dragon of Destiny**

By nightdragon0

_OK, that was either the most noble or most stupid thing I've ever done in my life. _Nightfire thought, glaring at the ceiling of his prison cell.

After giving his answer, he'd been brought back to the cell in practically no time at all. The guards had taken him on a longer route going there, likely to add to his disorientation of the base's layout, but they hadn't bothered on the way back.

They probably knew what was in store for him anyway.

Kirath had been taken to be given the same speech he had. At least that was what Nightfire assumed, as he closed his eyes and waited, seemingly for hours.

Finally, the door clanged open and the guards brought Kirath back in, securing his restraining platform to the wall before leaving.

"You get the same 'help me take over the universe' lecture I did?" Nightfire asked.

"Yes, and also a bit of information about you." Kirath replied. "You never told me a lot of those things."

"Yeah, well sorry. But you know, your beast form is a copy of mine, acquired when you came through that time rift…"

"If you're about to say it's your fault that I'm here with you, don't." Kirath interrupted. "I wouldn't blame you for anything like that."

"Thanks old timer." Nightfire nodded as best as he could with his head in a brace. "One thing I realized through, he has telepathic powers similar to mine. I think that was how he found me…he could sense it every time I used my powers within the fortress."

"However, this Omega fellow did seem slightly pissed off with you. What did you say to him?"

"I only told him that I wouldn't hand him a bucket of spit if he burst into flames." Nightfire grinned.

"Such a colorful insult…"

"Yeah, but he wasn't too happy about it at all." Nightfire managed a small laugh. "How about you?"

"I just gave a flat-out no."

"Great, so now that the rejection part is over, how you think they're gonna execute us?"

"That actually sounds like something Rattrap would say." Kirath commented.

"Someone call my name?"

"What?! Rattrap?!" Nightfire gasped.

"Hey people." Rattrap poked his head out of an air vent above them, allowing both to see him clearly. "I would say nice to see you all, but it looks like you're all tied up at the moment."

"Thanks for stating the obvious." Nightfire growled as Rattrap made his way down.

"Hang on, I'll get you out of those." Rattrap raised his gun.

"No, don't fire. You'll attract the guards." Kirath warned.

"Yeah, I forgot. Man, what am I supposed to do then?! I don't have anything here that could even scratch these without making a big bang." Rattrap muttered, tugging at their chains. "I admit through, I have to admire their handicraft."

"You'd better leave us and scram." Nightfire told him.

"What?!"

"He's right." Kirath agreed. "But first tell us what's been going on."

"Nothing good really." Rattrap sighed as he related his story with Cheetor and the situation of the Predacons inside the base.

Kirath in turn, passed Rattrap the information they had obtained.

"Going for the power core would be a good idea." Kirath decided. "If you could both locate it and contact our allies outside, perhaps an assault could divert their attention long enough for a chosen few to take out the core."

"Yeah, that was our plan." Rattrap nodded. "But I was searching through the files and found something about you two. They'll be putting you into some gladiator arena. And who know what's gonna to happen after that?"

"Oh wow, Rattrap, I never knew you cared." Nightfire said sarcastically.

"Hey, they can melt you down and use what's left for fossil fuel for all I care! It's the General I'm worried about."

"That's much appreciated Rattrap, but no." Kirath told him. "You'll have to carry out the plan without us. If it really is a gladiator arena as you say, then Nightfire and I will be providing some 'entertainment'. That'll divert some attention as well. You'd best make haste now, no telling when our guards may return."

"All right, if that's what you want." Rattrap climbed back into the air vent and pulled the grills shut. "Try not to get yourselves scrapped, OK?"

"That's something new from him." Nightfire muttered as the rat's footsteps faded. "Hey Kirath, there might be a chance we'll survive, right?"

"Haha, I promise to get out of this alive, just as long as you do the same." The old soldier chuckled.

"Deal?"

"Deal."

* * *

"Yeah big bot, that's all I know so far. Rattrap ran off a while ago and hasn't come back yet." Cheetor's voice echoed down the air vent.

"That boss monkey on the line?" Rattrap asked, bursting out into the room.

"Yargh!" Startled, Cheetor pointed his weapon at him. "Don't scare me like that!"

Rattrap pushed his way past the young Maximal and walked up to the computer.

"Hey there boss, how ya doing?"

"Cut the crap Rattrap." Optimus yelled from the other side. "Cheetor told me you had some plan."

"Yep, well, Kirath's actually." Rattrap informed him. "Basically, he and his fellow scale belly are being thrown into a pit fight. That and hopefully an attack from you guys should cause enough of a distraction for us in here to find the power core, take it out, and BOOM!"

"But it's just big bot and Rhinox out there against this thing." Cheetor protested.

"True." Optimus replied. "But I think I could 'convince' Megatron to 'lend' us a hand."

"Ole Megs?!" Rattrap gasped.

"Rhinox, get out that missile we've been saving. Yes, **that** one!"

"Watcha plan to do? Fire it at the Pred base and hope they'll chase you all the way to this hunk of junk?!"

"Sometimes, the most insane plans are the ones that work." Optimus said. "Leave that part to me. You'd better plan out your part carefully. Good luck!"

"Yeah, yeah." Rattrap nodded, turning to Cheetor. "Sit down kid and find yourself a terminal. We gonna be really busy…and I'm about to show you how a professional hacker, spy and infiltrator works!"

* * *

"What do you mean the power core's moving?!" Muricate gasped.

"Keep your voice down!" Deathwing hissed, before turning back to the com-link. "You said you have a general location?"

"Yeah." Rattrap said over the com-link. "It's on the level above the arena at the south sector."

"Arena?" Silverbolt wondered. "The one where Kirath and Nightfire will be?"

"I'm pretty sure it is. And since that's the case, all we need to do is get near the location and hide. Once the dragons are in the spotlight, I'll contact the others outside and we'll charge in and blow the power core."

"Getting there is our problem." Muricate commented. "We're not exactly very near there, and we don't crawl through sewer holes like you."

"Hey! Why you…"

"Not now, both of you!" Silverbolt cut in.

"This is crazy." Blackarachnia muttered, peering out the door of the room they were hiding in. "Hmmm…hey how bout we hitch a ride instead?"

Everyone looked out to where she was pointing…a stack of crates being loaded onto a conveyer belt for transportation.

Considering their party had been running and sneaking around in the shadows for the last few cycles, getting a ride like that seemed like a luxury liner to them. Provided they could pull it off that was…

* * *

"This one?" Cheetor pointed.

"Yeah, but watch your head!"

BANG!

"Ow…" Cheetor moaned.

Both in beast mode, the pair was making their way through the air vents, along a route Rattrap claimed he'd carefully marked out. They had it a little easier than Deathwing's group, but Cheetor's head was getting more and more sore each bend.

"Rattrap, are we there yet?"

"Look up this one." Rattrap pointed up a diagonal tunnel. It was sloping upwards and just big enough for one.

"Ugrh…" Cheetor pulled himself up and gasped. "We're at the wall within the arena's field!"

"Haha! See, I was right!" Rattrap said proudly. "Watcha see kiddo?"

"Lots of those soldiers gathering in the stands, but no battle yet."

"Good, so can you stay here for a while and watch?"

"Why? Where are you going?" Cheetor asked.

"There's something else I've got to do." Rattrap called, disappearing into another shaft. "Be back soon!"

* * *

Nightfire and Kirath did their best to act surprised when a guard came along and told them about their upcoming battle.

Soon afterwards, they were pulled off the wall and thrown into separate cages. The cages were clear, transparent rectangles mounted to hovering boards. Their glass-like walls seemed weak at first, until Nightfire tested them by head butting them continuously.

All he got for that effort was a headache and a small laugh from Kirath.

"I know how you feel." The old soldier spoke. "Just like an animal at the zoo."

"Yeah, but at least the animals there aren't being thrown into a Roman gladiator arena." Nightfire replied. "You tried transforming?"

"I have, but to no avail." Kirath shook his head. "They must've disabled our transformation abilities. We'll be stuck in beast mode for this one."

The guards around them gave them odd glances every now and then, but remained silent as they moved the cages.

"How appropriate…" Nightfire muttered as they were brought up to a gigantic pair of reinforced titanium double doors.

Both dragons could not help but stare as they were brought into the arena.

It was a scene right out of Earth's history. The circular stadium was filled with spectators, a mixture of soldiers and technicians, those given leave from their duties at least.

"Fancy, isn't it?" Omega's voice boomed.

Kirath and Nightfire glanced around, but of course, couldn't tell where his voice was coming from.

"Such a shame that both of you had to reject my proposal." Omega continued. "However, I feel a public execution would be a little too plain for warriors such as yourselves. As such, I will allow you a warrior's death…death on the battlefield."

"You are just so fragging sympathetic!" Nightfire yelled, banging on the walls of his cage. "So forgive me for not melting into a puddle of gratitude!"

"Defiant till the end. Well, can't say I didn't expect that. So then, let the games begin!"

* * *

"Ah ha!" Rattrap pulled himself into the room. "No guards. Hmmm…the guy in charge here must be pretty wrapped up with the Dragon Show over there. Either that, or he's very confident of his security system…which of course, is no challenge for me!"

This was another storage room, but in particular, a weapons storage. After disabling the alarm from a panel on the wall, Rattrap happily helped himself to the extra ammunition clips, filling his subspace compartments full.

He had a feeling they would need those later.

In the midst of his search, Rattrap opened a locker and found a large sword inside…Nightfire's green Energon blade, intact and inside its sheath.

"Well, for dragon breath's sake, better take this too." Rattrap muttered, dragging the weapon back to the air vent. "Time to get back to the others."

* * *

The door to Kirath's cage swung open. He gave Nightfire a firm nod before stepping out into the arena. The crowd promptly went into a series of boos and jeers at his entrance.

_Not much of a morale booster. _The green dragon told himself.

A metal sword and shield were tossed to him from the sideline. Kirath stood on his hind legs and took the weapons in his fore claws.

The blade was poorly made and felt heavy in his claws, while the shield looked weak and flimsy.

_Better than having nothing at all. _

Kirath had often trained alongside Nightfire in fighting in beast mode, and hopefully that would now pay off for his efforts. Bringing his shield up and gripping his sword, Kirath nodded, indicating he was ready.

On the other side of the arena, another pair of huge double doors opened, allowing him to lay his eyes upon his opponents.

Three large cybernetic dragons, all in gray and of a nearly identical structure to his own beast mode, although much larger.

Kirath could immediately see that these were nothing more than mindless killing machines, however, they were types which also possessed a formidable threat. He briefly turned towards Nightfire, who was watching intensely.

The three cyber dragons spread out, attempting to surround Kirath.

_Which one…left! _

Kirath parried the claw attack from his left, swung to the side and shoved his opponent, sending him flying into one of his comrades. The remaining one charged and lashed at Kirath with his tail.

He managed to block the blow with the shield, through it left the shield badly dented. The enemy dragon attacked again and again, forcing Kirath to continue guarding. He didn't realize the dragon's tail ended in a pair of sharp blades until they pierced through his shield, stopping inches away from his face.

Making use of the distraction, Kirath twisted the shield, hence twisting the tail, and slashed. The blow both took off the dragon's tail and sent him rolling away.

By this time, the other two cyber dragons had recovered and approached as well. Having lost the shield in the previous maneuver, Kirath gripped his sword with both hands and took both opponents.

The next few seconds were vicious, ending with Kirath receiving multiple wounds and slashes. Once again, the two began to spread out, forcing Kirath to face his back towards one opponent as he parried a blow from the other.

In his state, Kirath couldn't keep up the pace. He heard the 'swoosh' of the tail swing from behind, however wasn't able to avoid it as it smashed down on his left shoulder.

Kirath roared in pain. The blow had snapped what would be the equivalent of a human's collar and shoulder bones, rendering his left arm nearly immobile. It also had taken toll on his left wing, leaving that useless as well.

In his moment of distortion, Kirath began spewing flames everywhere. Unfortunately, the cyber dragons were virtually immune to the fire, and simply shielded themselves until Kirath ran out of flame.

One rushed and grabbed him from behind, holding him around his neck. The second one raised his claws, preparing to finish him off. Pushing the pain out of his mind, Kirath leaned back slightly, then suddenly swung his body forward.

This threw the one holding him over his body, right into the attacker's path. The attacker's claws neatly pierced through the unfortunate victim's back, sending an odd purple fluid spewing out as it howled madly.

Wasting no time, Kirath grabbed the spiked tail of the critically damaged dragon and impaled the standing dragon with it. Both cyber dragons went down in a fountain of mech-fluid and beast-like howls.

Exhausted, Kirath grabbed the sword and turned to face the last opponent, the tailless dragon. The two walked up to each other and went into a frenzy of blows. Finally, Kirath managed to hit the dragon in the chin with the hilt of his sword.

The cyber dragon fell backwards, but as it did, it lashed out with its claws in desperation. And the blow tore straight through Kirath's right knee.

On impulse, Kirath jerked back in pain. However, his other leg was in the worse possible position for that and he snapped his own ankle as he fell.

Even in all his agony, Kirath realized his fate had been sealed. He was on his knees, unable to fly, left arm immobilized. Neither would his legs be able to bring him anywhere.

Kirath fought on until his sword arm was sliced off at the elbow. He didn't have the strength to scream as he was pierced through his chest and lifted high up into the air.

Kirath found himself facing Nightfire, who was pounding wildly on his cage.

"I'm sorry…I can't…keep that promise…" He whispered. "I'm sorry…Nightfire…"

Grinning evilly, the cyber dragon aimed his final attack at Kirath's neck.

* * *

Nightfire's wail of anguish terrified the guards nearby, causing them to flee. He stared in horror as the cyber dragon continued to tear Kirath's body apart, as if taking his life had not been enough.

The agony soon turned into blind rage as the black dragon pounded on his cage. A sudden energy surge shot through his body, knocking him out. Apparently some mechanism of his prison.

It couldn't have been more than a few minutes, but Nightfire awoke to find himself in the middle of the arena. All signs of Kirath and his murderer were gone, save a small puddle of mech-fluid nearby.

Nightfire's roar of fury instantaneously silenced the spectators.

_Damn it! Dammit all! _He thought. _Will there be no chance for revenge?! _

There were no weapons thrown to him and Nightfire assumed he had been selected for a far more brutal death. Once again, the huge double doors swung open.

Nightfire was expecting to see a dragon of some form, but certainly not the one which met his eyes.

It was beautiful to say the least. A white scaled dragon with a golden mane sprouting from the back of its head. Its lower belly and its claws were a light blue, as were the two horns on its head. It approached him, walking on all fours with an almost graceful aura about it.

This one was no machine, Cybertronian or not. It was a living, breathing, organic dragon.

Nightfire stared, completely transfixed until it gave a loud roar. Snapping back to reality, Nightfire backed away, growling.

The white dragon was easily three times his size, certainly enough as a cause for concern. Nightfire was left in indecision about whether to fight or run. The white dragon continued snarling as it approached.

He saw too that its wings had been clipped. The poor creature would never fly again.

_Listen… _

Nightfire blinked. He thought he was hearing voices in his head again.

_Listen… _

_Listen? Listen to what?! _Nightfire thought.

It was a gut feeling he couldn't ignore. Cutting himself out from the world around, Nightfire focused hard. Then, he realized it was the white dragon talking to him.

It didn't really have a proper language, but Nightfire interpreted it as best as he could and replied in the same manner. The 'dragon tongue' came to him naturally, as if he'd known it all his life.

'_You've returned…' _It 'said'. '_You are different now, but it is still you.' _

'_Returned?' _He asked.

'_You were killed…but how can you be here?' _

'_I…' _

'_The day they brought us outside, you tried to escape, but…'_

Suddenly, Nightfire understood the dragon's words. She thought he was her long lost mate, because that was the DNA pattern he'd gotten. Perhaps it was a combination of both animal instinct and his psychic powers, but he knew.

'_I'm sorry.' _Nightfire told her. '_But I'm not him. However, these are also my enemies.' _

He made a brief gesture with his eyes towards the soldiers in the stands. The white dragon eyed him, then the soldiers and turned back to Nightfire again.

'_A dragon's blood has been spilled.' _She said, glancing down at the remaining puddle of Kirath's mech-fluid.

'_Yes…' _Nightfire grimaced.

'_Many have tried and failed.' _She spoke. '_Now, I am the last. I want so much to be free, but I have never been able to. I attack, but the unseen barrier keeps them protected from my fire.' _

'_I can bring the barrier down.' _Nightfire growled confidently. '_Only if you will work together with me._ _If you are the last, than like me, you have nothing left to lose other than your life.' _

'_Very well.' _

'_Good, follow me, and try to make it look like you're chasing me.' _

* * *

The crowd was growing anxious at what seemed like a snarling match between the two. Finally, Nightfire broke off into a run, with the white dragon hot on his heels. Thinking they were witnessing a chase scene, the soldiers began cheering.

Nightfire lead the white dragon to the edge of the arena and abruptly dropped himself low down.

"Now, shoot there!" He roared.

Channeling his powers, he threw them at the invisible energy shield, creating a small hole in it for several seconds. Those seconds were enough for the Great White one's huge, fiery breath to get through, detonating a large portion of the stands and with them, the unprepared soldiers.

As Nightfire had expected, once one part of the force field was disrupted, the entire thing went offline, allowing the White One to freely blast at the soldiers, her tormentors since the time of her birth.

Chaos ensured as the soldiers dashed around blindly. Being created for less independence and more obedience, they were of course far more dependant on orders. And orders were hard to give out in those hectic moments.

The White One let loose with all her fury, spraying a fiery reign of destruction in all directions.

Nightfire nearly regretted executing this plan when the soldiers began shooting back. However, since the White One was much larger than he was, all the firepower was directed towards her instead.

He stared in horror as she collapsed, never to rise again. Yet another life he was responsible for.

_At least, my end will come soon. _He told himself as he began fighting off the soldiers with his own breath weapons.

"Hey! Catch!" A familiar voice shouted.

Nightfire snapped up as the glint of a familiar object flashed by. Calling the Phoenix Blade to his hand, Nightfire grasped his own sword in joy. He couldn't see where Rattrap had tossed it from, but he was silently thanking his comrade nevertheless.

Simply the feel of the weapon breathed new life into his drained body.

Melding the green glow with the motion of his body, Nightfire swung it about, deflecting multiple laser bursts back towards the soldiers. One guard came at him wielding a similar Energon blade.

Nightfire rammed him down and claimed the red-bladed sword for himself. In the midst of his solo battle, Nightfire collected a third, purple Energon sword, which he gripped by wrapping his tail around, as if it were a third hand.

Somersaulting over the crowd, he landed firmly in the center of the arena.

"Get ready!" He roared raising all three swords.

With one in either hand and the third in his tail, Nightfire spun them simultaneously, forming a whirling tornado of motion, a picture of both beauty and deadliness.

No shots even came close to hitting his body. However, Nightfire had to stop after a while and found himself completely surrounded.

BOOM! An entire squad of soldiers went flying.

Deathwing stepped into the arena, reloaded his Gunblade and fired again.

"You have to show off in the most unique of ways little brother." Deathwing commented. "But here's one thing, the honor of killing you belongs to only one person. Me. And no madman bent on universal domination is going to take that from me!"

"You know, you'd make a better Maximal than me." Nightfire whistled.

"Don't pull my feathers that way Nightfire." He snarled. "It'll only make me hurt you more once I can."

"Hey!" Muricate entered as well, blasting away with her Shotgun. "You're not doing this on your own. I care enough about you to not let you go out this way!"

"Muricate…" Deathwing muttered.

There was another explosion as Silverbolt fired his wing missile before soaring onto the scene.

"For a Predacon, you have a great sense of honor." He said to Deathwing. "It is my choice to fight alongside you!"

"Oh, what sloppiness." Blackarachnia moaned from the sideline. However, she was firing as well.

* * *

The added cover fire gave Nightfire the chance to dash towards the second huge door. The cybernetic dragons had been released, but Nightfire was looking for one in particular.

The tailless one roared as Nightfire leapt upon him. The cyber dragon smashed its claws downwards, but Nightfire was quick enough to leap up, over its head and slash with all three swords.

The mechanical beast fell into more than 8 pieces.

"That was for you Kirath." He declared.

A series of explosion shook the arena and Nightfire flew for cover.

_Why do I feel Rattrap had something to do with that? Well, who else would go round planting that many C4s? _Then he smiled. _Except me of course._

"Over here!" Deathwing waved him towards another entrance, also barred by a set of huge double doors.

Nightfire tossed the other swords away as the rolled into the entrance to find the rest of the group, together with Rattrap, Cheetor and Optimus there.

The other Beast Warriors pushed the doors close as much as they could and held the entrance position, exchanging fire with the 'clone army'.

"How the heck did you get in here?!" Nightfire gasped.

"Let's say I 'persuaded' Megatron to attack the outside of the fortress." Optimus replied. "Enough cover for me to sneak in at least."

"It's wonder he fell for that 'the aliens firing a missile at his base' story." Deathwing scowled. "In future, I've got to get myself hired to intelligent employers only."

"Excuse me, but you'll need to hurry!" Silverbolt called. "We can't hold them off forever!"

"OK, it's like this." Rattrap explained. "This whole fortress is linked to one central power core. Only thing is that the power core isn't a place…"

"It's a person." Nightfire completed his sentence. "It's Omega himself!"

"Exactly." Optimus nodded. "Courtesy of Rattrap's hacking. If we take him out, the base, and presumably the entire army goes down as well."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Nightfire asked.

"Ya see, Omega is located on the level above us." Rattrap continued. "But there's far too much Energon radiation for anyone to go in in robot mode. So…"

"You need me, because I can fight the best in my beast mode."

"It is asking a lot of you…" Optimus started.

"Don't bother with the speech." Nightfire interrupted. "I am the main character after all. So, how do I get up?"

"Right above this entranceway, there's a shaft that's been blown open by the fighting. It'll take you straight to your quarry." Optimus informed him.

"An Energon field like that would short out most energy weapons, right?" Nightfire confirmed.

"Yes, but that Energon Sword of yours will still function, seeing that it 'melds' with the Energon fields around it." Deathwing explained. "I did pay attention in that lecture, unlike you."

"That's good." Nightfire grinned, holding up his prized Phoenix Blade. "By the way, can anyone spare me another sword?"

Almost immediately, Deathwing walked up and shoved his Gunblade into Nightfire's claws.

"Don't ask." He growled.

"Thanks." Nightfire whispered.

"We'll open the doors when you're ready and you can climb to the level above." Optimus said. "Good luck, Nightfire."

Nightfire tested the Gunblade before sheathing both it and his Energon sword under the silver wings of his black dragon form. Dropping onto all fours, he roared and stared ahead at the double doors.

"Let the battle be joined!"


	15. Flying High, Soaring Forever

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**Flying High, Soaring Forever**

By nightdragon0

I held my breath as the gigantic doors swung open. I had cover fire behind me, a strong resolution within, and a powerful enemy in front.

Once the doors had opened just enough, I dashed.

Laser fire and explosions were everywhere as I ran, deflecting the shots. However, my destination was an opening right above the door. Lacking the space to take off in the midst of all the shooting, I leapt against the wall, piercing both swords into it.

I used those as handholds to pull myself up.

Suddenly, a hook moved towards me. It was connected to a crane and I saw Muricate operating it from below. Nodding, I took hold and allowed her to maneuver the hook up and closer to my destination.

I had to protect the chain by deflecting laser bursts until I was finally able to jump up into the shaft.

I raced as sections began slamming shut. I rolled, vaulted and used every maneuver I knew, barely getting past the closing sections in time.

As I jumped through the last of the closing doors, a small laser turret turned towards me. Breaking into a forward roll, I lashed out with both swords in that same motion, tearing the turret apart.

Another mounted laser appeared behind me and I spun round, torching it with my fire breath. I stood there, growling, for a moment before continuing.

* * *

My next obstacle came in the form of a maze of moving metal pillars. Those shot out and retracted out of the walls, their force and size easily being enough to crush my body in a few blows.

I took the maze at full speed, dashing between each one.

However, the last one was timed differently from what I'd expected. As it collided with me, I braced myself on my hind legs, shoving at the moving pillar with my arms and shoulder.

I screamed, summoning all my power and finally shoved it back, destroying the mechanism at the same time.

Next came a hallway of guns, which I tore through with the two swords I wielded in each hand. (With slow motion shots of him slicing the guns apart.)

Standing amidst the fires of my created destruction, I summoned up my own tsunami of flames. Breathing flames more intense than I ever had before, I shrouded my body with them and flew through the air, spinning and whirling the swords.

Nothing stood in my way than wasn't flattened or charred to a crisp.

That fancy maneuver didn't last very long, but my continued slashing of wall mounted defenses did. (More slow motion shots of tearing guns to pieces.)

At last, I charged into a room filled with blue colored lights. Standing in the center, next to what seemed like a huge power generator, stood my nemesis.

"You think you can defy me?" Omega yelled in rage. "Now, you're all alone. You have no allies to help you this time!"

"I can and I will!" I roared. "For challenging the impossible is what I do best!"

"Fool!" Omega whipped out a large, curved Samurai-style Katana as I charged.

Sparks flew as our weapons collided.

Parrying and blocking each other's blows, a fierce match broke out. I let both instinct and the motion take over my actions, choosing to calm my mind and focus on the enemy.

It certainly frustrated Omega and when we locked swords again, he shoved me onto my back.

Omega attempted a downwards thrust, which I knocked away and retaliated by kicking his chest.

Grunting in pain, he stumbled back and raised his hand. Immediately, a swarm of small black balls flew out and surrounded me. These were miniature drones, which had a single laser built into them.

Whilst they could be used for training soldiers, they could also be programmed to kill.

It must've looked insane to him as I simply closed my eyes and stood still, but the moment the drones fired, my swords flashed, taking them apart faster than eye could see.

Even more angered now, Omega used a telekinetic push to throw me against a wall. He then activated another of his personal defenses, another set of moving, pounding pillars.

Although my back was pressed against the wall, I swiftly dodged each one.

Spinning out of their deadly circle, I moved around then and sliced the defenses apart.

I threw a punch into Omega's face, followed by a kick to his chest that sent him flying. Pulling himself up, he quickly turned and fled.

I gave chase, following him into another tunnel. This one had a recreation of a tornado within it, intended to thrown intruders against the sharp blades on the walls.

Shielding my face from the winds, I timed myself and flew through the very center, the only clam area within.

Omega was waiting for me, just in time to blast me with his yellow paralyzing beam. It had taken me down before, but I let off a fierce roar as I channeled the energy through my body, into my claws, and finally back at him.

Omega managed to dodge the counter attack, but lay of the ground staring as I strode up to him, appearing through the smoke and fires of his precious base.

"Impossible!" He yelled.

"You killed me once before…" I snarled, raising my blades. "And I'm here to pay you back for it!"

* * *

"No…" Omega muttered.

I knew what he was seeing was the image of Sky Lynx over me as I made my approach. That made me far more intimidating.

Omega brought up a pistol and fired. I stepped to the side to avoid the shot and kicked the weapon out of his hand.

Screaming, he rolled backwards and sprang to his feet, drawing his sword once again. Our sword fight would continue, this time until the end.

Similar to the last fight, our weapons clashed once again in another furious bout. The swords and blows flew about so fast that I couldn't tell one from the other.

A fluid sea of motion, almost beautiful to one watching it.

Finally, I slammed his sword away and drove the Phoenix Blade through his chest.

Omega screamed long and loud before glaring right into my eyes.

"Even in this, my fortress will self destruct, taking you and the rest of this blasted planet to the abyss with it!"

"Never!" I growled, channeling my powers through the Phoenix Blade. "You control this place through your psychic powers, and I will do the same, sending this place up into orbit, where the explosion will do no harm!"

"Then you'd have to remain here as to complete that task! You'll die in the process!"

"True, I will, but I have nothing left to loose…" I yelled, with withdrawing my sword. "Unlike you!"

Telepathically, I sent a private message to Deathwing, telling him to get everybody out. This time, at least, I knew he would listen.

My only regret was that I didn't have time to tell him anything else.

"NNOOOO!" Omega yelled in both rage and desperation.

Taking to the sky, I spread my wings, placed both swords forward and burst into a pillar of flames.

"EMBRACE YOUR END!!" I roared, charging down headfirst.

I no longer heard his screams, that of the explosions, the guns, or the feeling of my allies evacuating the fortress.

I only saw Sky Lynx's image once more, flashing over me as I struck, tearing Omega apart…and awaiting my destiny in the process.

I was briefly aware of myself being thrown violently around. The Phoenix Blade, my faithful companion, being thrown into darkness, its green glow lost forever.

* * *

"By the Matrix, he's alive!"

I wasn't sure I'd heard that right. I wasn't sure I'd heard that at all. As much as I didn't want to, something drew me back to consciousness. Had I subconsciously gotten out of that death trap, somehow?

There were garbled voices everywhere, and I felt someone picking me up.

Even my vision was blurred as I opened my eyes slightly and gave a soft moan. However, I recognized that the figure approaching me was Deathwing.

"I'm surprised you brought this back." He said, pulling something close to me: his Gunblade. "You may be the hero today, and I respect that, but our personal battle will still continue. Until we match wits again then…"

(Or…cross swords… ) I sent I telepathic message to him. To tell the truth, that was more of maintaining my image that anything else.

Deathwing didn't turn around as he departed, but made the 'V' sign with two fingers.

* * *

I would never know exactly how I'd survived the explosion, only that I was found several hours after the incident amongst the remains of the wrecked base. I was barely functional, but alive nevertheless.

Whilst Deathwing's Gunblade had been found beside me, my Phoenix Blade was gone.

Most of the other Maximals had come to talk to me while I was recovering in the infirmary, but it hadn't helped much. I couldn't undo what had happened to Kirath, Calico or Syndrea for that matter, and it hurt me even more lying in the medical bay thinking about it.

One night, I couldn't stand it any longer. I sneaked out of the base in my favored beast mode. Even through not fully recovered, I made my way high up to the snowy mountain. The place where Syndrea's grave marker lay, among the others that had been placed there.

I knelt down first by hers, then Kirath's.

"What's wrong?" I asked them, of course getting no reply but the howling of the winds. "Why you? Why do the people I care about always have to leave me? No…it's me…I'm just a curse to everyone who cares about me!!"

Roaring in anguish, I dug my claws among the snowy ground and found Syndrea's retractable Energon saber, which had been placed beside the grave marker. I lay there, staring at it for a long time.

_End it now…end your suffering once and for all… _

Grabbing the Energon saber, I flew deeper into the snowy region, until I didn't even know where I was. However it wouldn't matter anyway. I just couldn't think as I landed atop the cliff.

I wanted it all to end.

Igniting the Energon saber, I held it up only for a second before plunging it into my own chest.

* * *

I didn't know how long it was, but I opened my eyes again. The first thing that hit me was the extreme chill of the arctic region. The next thing was frustration.

_Damn you fool…you're useless…you can't even commit suicide properly…_

I tried to pull myself up, only to find I couldn't move. I was frozen up till my neck in ice. Miserably, I lay my head down and closed my eyes. My fiery breath weapon was currently out and useless, thanks to the cold. I'd have to suffer even more before I could die.

It was ironic, how I'd spent so much trying to avoid death, but now that I wanted it, it wouldn't come to me at all.

_Why? _

In the midst of the icy winds, I suddenly sensed something which caused my heart to jump. It was something so familiar, yet I couldn't identify it. Summoning my telekinetic powers, I called whatever it was towards me.

The object turned out to be a small, black rectangular box partially buried in the snow nearby. I grabbed it in my jaws once it was close enough and pulled it closer.

I stared at what I saw. Through its transparent cover, I saw two large white eggs, nestled in a pile of straw and grass. It shocked me even more when I probed the eggs and discovered what lay dormant inside.

The unborn hatchlings of the Great White Dragon and her mate.

It didn't take a genius to come up with a theory that during their captivity, their eggs had been taken from them without them even knowing. After the fortress' destruction, their box had ended up here, with the eggs intact. Probably there had been more protective cases for the eggs, which were now gone.

_Sad…_I told myself. _The hatchlings will never emerge, never to see the light of day. They'll freeze to death out here with me, once their protective box's internal heating runs out… _

I stopped short.

_But…if I just leave them, they'll be more lives I'll be responsible for taking. I have to try…somehow. _

I curled as much if my dragon neck as I could around the precious box and put out a distress signal, hoping, praying, someone would find me in time.

What seemed like an eternity passed. Soon, my worst fears were realized. I was too far out to be detected. Temperatures dropped, and my dilemma grew more and more desperate.

_It's hopeless… _I told myself.

I wanted so much to lie down and just forget about the whole thing, just to lie down and die…but…but I couldn't just leave the dragon eggs.

I roared, focusing what little energy I had left. I was still a Transformer, and there was one option I could still use, if my systems weren't too frozen up.

"Maximize!"

Gears within me shifted as my systems groaned in protest. Once…twice…three times…then…the ice around my body shattered.

I dropped to my knees and reverted to beast mode immediately. However, that process had taken far too much out of me.

I collapsed, my face hitting the snow.

_I'm sorry… _I said in my mind. _I can take lives away so easily…yet saving one is an impossible task for me. _

"Don't give up…"

"What?" I gasped, snapping up. It could've been the winds, but I was sure I'd heard a voice.

"That's not the dragon I remember…"

"Syndrea? Syndrea! Is that you?" I called out, glancing around.

Somewhere ahead, I made out the image of a shimmering figure. I couldn't tell if it really was her or not.

"Nightfire…" Syndrea's voice spoke. "You know I don't blame you for what happened to me."

"Syndrea…"

"I've been trying to tell you that, but you've been far too distraught to listen."

"I…I know…" I muttered. "I just…couldn't…"

"I understand." She said with a warm tone in her voice. "Sometimes, you just need to listen to the voice within your heart."

"It…was you right? The voice who told me to listen carefully to the Great White?"

"Yes Nightfire." Syndrea responded. "It pains me to see you like this. You can still find a reason for life…and I know you'll do that, and you'll carry on. However, I can't stay too long. I cannot postpone my journey to the matrix any longer."

"I love you!" I yelled, tears coming to my dragon eyes.

"I love you too." She said, although softer now. "I always will. Keep me close to your heart, and we'll never be apart, Nightfire…"

I howled and ran as the image began to fade. It was gone by the time I dove, hitting nothing but the snow.

"Syndrea…I owe you, more than anything now." I whispered, wiping my eyes.

For her…and for the unborn dragons, I had to live. As I focused on that resolution, and on Syndrea's essence, I began to change. Perhaps it was because I'd absorbed some of Omega's power too.

A reddish light emitted from a section on the left of my chest, shrouding me in its light.

My Transmetal armor seemed to suddenly crack and peel off in multiple places. Beneath it, although of a similar black color, lay a more scale-like skin as opposed to my former Transmetal body. It was as if I'd gained a more organic-looking form, yet kept all the new additions and colors from my Transmetal body.

My silver wings had regained their former, leathery property. The 'crown' like helmet over my face was there as well, with the three horns there as I'd become accustomed to. Even the Rail Cannon attached itself to my back.

Even through I lost my 'vehicle' mode, it was an amazing change. As it would come to be know as later, I'd become a Transmetal 2.

Miraculously re-energized, I grabbed the eggs, fought the insane winds with my wings and brought them back to my lair. I hooked up their incubator and hid them. Tracking the signals of the other Maximals, I raced over to the Ark, just in time to witness them being able to halt the time storm and restore Megatron's time disruption. (Season 3 Episode 'Optimal Situation'.)

Events which followed that resulted in great changes for everyone, but as for me, I definitely knew one thing…this time, I was determined to follow the Beast Wars until the end.

And with Deathwing, our battle would continue, until…

* * *

**At the end of 'Nemesis, Part 2'… **

I leapt over Deathwing and swung my sword, Syndrea's Energon saber, blocking blows from both him and Muricate. Yelling and roaring at each other, our weapons clashed again and again.

All of us in robot mode, all intent on finishing this battle.

Jumping up, I sent a flying kick into Muricate's side, throwing her away. I landed in a guarding stance and managed to deflect Deathwing's swing by holding my blade backwards, over my shoulder. Immediately, I spun around and knocked him off.

I rolled under Deathwing's Gunblade and ended up behind him. As I brought my sword up, so did he. However, his blade was in an inappropriate position.

Time seemed to slow down as I sliced his Gunblade in two, the force of the motion sending him stumbling back.

Seeing this Muricate rushed forward with her claw weapons. My sword was already returning in mid-swing and it tore through the Saber-toothed Tiger's chest.

Deathwing screamed in fury and charged, barehanded. However by that time, I couldn't stop my third swing. The killing swing my body had learnt to do on instinct.

In that split second, it was an instinct that was impossible to stop.

All of a sudden, I found myself standing over the fatally wounded bodies of my enemies. While the others had gone chasing Megatron, I'd been drawn away, into a two-on-one battle with the pair. And I'd emerged triumphant.

"Well…fought…" Deathwing breathed as I knelt down beside him. "It was an honorable battle…"

"Brother…" I muttered. "Why? You would've made a better Maximal than me. You could've come over!"

"True, but then…we wouldn't have had…the chance to…finally end this…" Deathwing replied weakly. "It's been between us…but you've proven to…truly be…the greater of us…"

Deathwing moved his hand over to Muricate, who looked up weakly and nodded.

"It could've been different." I said sadly. "I messed up!"

"Haha, wouldn't be you if you didn't…" Deathwing managed to sit up a little. "But, if not for our feud…then I would never have met…my true love."

"Brother…"

"It's nice to hear you…calling me that…one last time." He grinned.

"Now, go stop Megatron…and the Nemesis…" Muricate added in.

"Quit wasting time here when all of reality is at stake!" Deathwing urged.

"Yes…" I nodded, standing up and activating the jets. "Farewell…and thank you."

The last I saw of my brother was his thumbs-up, and for the first in a long time…a genuine smile.

I had been too late and that final task had fallen to Optimus and the others. Well, we all know how that worked out in the end…

* * *

"Hey dragon-man!" Rattrap's voice snapped me out of my daydream. "Will ya come on? We're going home remember?"

"Huh? Oh!" I muttered, shaking my head.

I was standing below the ramp leading up to the small shuttle from within the Ark. The same one Rhinox had flown to stop the Nemesis.

The Beast Wars were over, and the Maximals now, after fixing up the Transwarp drives, had a way to return to Cybertron. Everyone had gathered at the ramp, all excited about their hard earned victory. However, I had something else in mind for myself.

"Actually, here's the thing." I declared, looking over each and every one of my comrades on top of the ramp. "I'm not going back…"


	16. Epilogue: Dragon by Dragon

_Beast Wars and all related characters belong to Hasbro and Mainframe. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission._

* * *

**Epilogue: Dragon by Dragon**

By nightdragon0

It's been a long time since I made that decision.

However, I can definitely say that I've never regretted it. Sure, there are quite a few things I would want to change if I could wave a magic wand and do it, but this was my life, my story.

Back then, the others had reacted just as I'd expected them to. But I knew that if they were going back to Cybertron, I could never follow.

I had similar reasons to the ones Dinobot would've given. However, he was a warrior of honor…I was a cold-blooded backstabber. And in the eyes of the community, I would always be.

No amount of good I could possibly do would change that.

The Maximals had understood at least. I'd turned over all my weapons and equipment to them and later stood on a high cliff, roaring as their ship departed.

With any signs of technology removed from my old lair, I checked that the Ark was well sealed up and made sure Waspinator would be causing no more trouble (Actually, I thought the early humans would be taking care of him instead).

I ripped out my own transformation core, obviously necessary for my transformation abilities, and sealed up the wound. Then, I gathered the two dragon eggs, the ones I'd hidden throughout the third stage of the Beast Wars, and brought them with me as I departed, wandering and searching for a place I could begin my new life.

I flew far away from the grounds on which the Beast Wars had been fought. Across oceans and seas, I dare say continents too. Sometimes, I wonder if anything else went on after I left, or whatever became of Waspinator, but that's all in the past now.

From then on, I decided that I would no longer live as a Transformer, but as a creature of this world, as Black Dragon.

* * *

On another landmass, I made a new lair and marked out my territory. I started hunting to sustain myself, although never taking more than I needed.

Then, the eggs finally hatched, most appropriately into a male with night black scales and his sister, of a pure white scale color. That gave me a whole new set of problems involving raising and caring for 'my' young, as I thought of them, but I took the challenge as my penance.

After all the lives I've taken, it was time to give some back.

I passed many things on to the hatchlings; survival skills, my self developed hunting techniques and how to watch out for each other. Nothing Cybertronian in nature, but just plain beast like instincts.

I stopped using my voice too, communicating only through growls, snarls and body language.

There were ups and downs, good times with plentiful prey, bad events like droughts and floods. In spite of everything, I enjoyed life for once.

I wish Syndrea could've been around to share this joy with me, but over time, I began to feel that perhaps this had been my destiny all along.

As my children grew and had hatchlings of their own, I stood back and smiled inwardly.

Dragons could live thousands of years, but they mated once in a very long time. The eggs and young too, took a long time to develop.

And so, our small population flourished.

Being able to live much longer than any of the other dragons, I became their 'Great Elder'. I spent countless years watching over my race.

* * *

Then came the time modern humans began to appear, and were soon populating the planet. The dragons went into hiding, having vanished seemingly without a trace. I strongly believe that was around the time considered as Earth's 'middle ages'.

I cleaned up one of the three dragon hatchlings with my tongue before putting him back in the nest with the others.

Right now, I was watching over a young couple, ironically a black male and white female dragon. In the depths of the lair, I nuzzled their hatchlings to sleep and strode out to see the two frolicking happily amongst the forest.

I didn't know where I was on Earth's current map, but this place was far away from any human inhabited areas, and that was what mattered.

Suddenly, my senses picked up something. A lone human, approaching our location.

I hadn't moved much in years, but now my heart pounded as I snuck silently through the forest. I certainly didn't want to hurt the fellow, but at the same time I needed to monitor him.

One thing I could immediately see in him was that he meant no harm. With only a camera and his backpack, he carefully made his way through the forest, snapping pictures here and there. It was the look in his eyes that told me he was a good person.

However, I was still considering whether to let him see us or not.

As I pondered that thought, the explorer continued walking on. Eventually, he sat down to take a rest on a fallen tree stump. He was very close to the dragon couple now, who quickly took to hiding in the shadows of the forest.

I remained hidden nearby as I continued to watch.

He opened his backpack, pulled out a notepad and began writing. I couldn't make out much, however I did manage to see the date on his notepad.

It was 1984.

As much as that surprised me, I also saw a video camera on top of his bag.

I let off a soft chuckle. There was one piece of my destiny left, and now was the time to complete the puzzle.

I sounded a low pitched growl to signal the dragon couple. Not to attack, but just to come out…right into the sight of the human.

The explorer jumped up as the sounds of the trees rustling and gasped at what he saw. Even in his moment of excitement, he still managed to bring up his video camera and start filming the two dragons leaping from tree to tree.

The same video clip I'd showed Syndrea.

As swiftly as they'd appeared, the two dragons disappeared from his sight, leaving the human to shut off his video camera and stare around, shaking his head in awe.

I inched forward slightly as he turned around. For a moment, we made eye contact. I'm sure I didn't look as nice as I did all those years ago, but I guess I seemed like an overwhelming sight to him.

Then, like my children, I too sank back, away from the human and back to our lair.

* * *

That night, I once again checked the hatchlings were well protected, by the dragon couple snuggled up against each other.

I saw so much of Syndrea and myself in this pair.

Silently, I moved towards the cave's entrance and glanced up into the stars.

I wonder how long more I'll live? I'm getting really old, so to say. Hmmm…seems like only yesterday that I was so young and reckless.

One thing I knew for sure, when my time finally comes, I will be truly happy. So, I guess this is my story's end…no…stories have no end.

_Stories go on… _

* * *

**Author's notes:**

_Wow, what can I say? _

_This was once of the first two fics I ever wrote, and now it's finally complete. It's taken me a pretty long time too. I've certainly had my fair share of ups and downs with this fic, but it's done. _

_I'd definitely like to extend my word of thanks you for reading, for your reviews and for all your support._

_Thinking about it, reading Beast Wars fanfiction was what got me started on writing myself in the first place. _

_Nightfire_ _and the Black Dragon Series will always be special to me, but it's now time for me to move on to other things. _

_Once again, thank you for taking this journey with me. However, it's now time for me to sign off._


End file.
